The Golden Moon
by The Rev
Summary: )))Completed((( Years after Goku leaves to train Uubu, a legendary appocolypse is drawing near. A vampire wants the Z fighters out of the way from between him and the Golden Moon. This story is way too complex to give the entire summary in three lines.
1. Chapter Two

Chapter Two:   
  
  


Space was huge. The universe held more than anyone really guesses. Even Kaio-shin who watched over all of it didn't know everything that happened out there. In the vast emptiness, populated mostly with civilizations much less advanced than earth's, tyrants and pirates could run free, unopposed by anyone.   


Out there, no one had heard of saiyajin, or the Z fighters, or Son Goku.   


There was one such tyrant that was more powerful than any of the others. His 'army', unlike most others, was composed of robots with only a few living servants. It was mostly his own power that kept him safe. He didn't believe in keeping a bunch of bodyguards around that were weaker than he was.   


His name was Osiris. He was a vampire.   


Humans, hearing the word vampire, would automatically think of crosses, garlic, coffins, and other such things. He had none of it. With all the different religions and all the different people in the universe, it would have been absurd to assume that one of them had the power to destroy him. He had never so much as seen garlic. He slept in a normal bed, when he slept at all. And, after two thousand years, he was much too powerful to be destroyed by the sunlight of any planet.   


He did drink blood on occasion. Only newly made vampires needed it all the time. He only needed it to make him stronger. If he craved it, he took what he wanted from some poor being on any nameless planet.   


Looking at him, he wouldn't look any different from a normal human, if he wanted. He had amazing mental powers, and could project images into other people's minds. But what he really looked like stuck out like a floodlight.   


His skin, like the skin of all very ancient vampires, glowed with a white radiance, and was as hard as marble. His hair was a shiny blue-black, about one inch long, slicked back. His eyes were glints of blue ice that seemed to glow.   


He dressed in simple black, normal pants and top made of smooth cloth. His voice was soft and mesmerizing, with an accent that sounded vaguely French, but not quite. Altogether, he seemed calm, detached, and refined.   


That is, until he dropped the act and let himself go. His power was amazing, and he never seemed to show it all. He was a raging demon, a furnace of power, not all ki. To put it in a short way, he was very, very dangerous.   


He was far away from his normal territory. He was looking for the planet where the Golden Moon would appear. It appeared that he had found it.   


He stood, hands clasped behind his back, looking at the destroyed robot on the table in front of him. If it hadn't been for the teleportation device he had installed in his robots, he probably would have lost the whole thing.   


He cursed under his breath as he looked at it. The computer was downloading it's memory now. That way, he could at least know what had killed it. His ship's computer had billions of different kinds of DNA in it's files, so it wouldn't take long to find the strength and species of whatever had killed it.   


He waited patiently as his robots scooted back and forth, getting parts and tools to repair the damage. It would be a lot of work, but better than losing one of his few battle robots.   


The computer had finished it's download.   


"Computer, access memory from the last fifteen minutes before the robot was damaged." he said softly.   


A view screen on the wall blinked on.   


"Scan complete." the electronic voice came out of the wall speakers. "Retrievable data being uploaded."   


"Never mind. I want to see the results of any DNA scans."   


A bar appeared on the screen ,and filled in yellow in a couple seconds. Then, a list of text appeared on the screen.   


He read silently.   


There were quite a few homo sapien, or human, as they called themselves. Judging from the power levels, it wasn't one of these that destroyed the robot.   


Suddenly, he stopped. In the middle of the list:   


demi-saiyajin.   


He hissed through his teeth, a grimace showing his fangs. "Saiyajin... where have I heard that before?"   


He couldn't remember, but judging from the power levels, these were definitely the ones that had destroyed his robot. Seemed that the electric jolt that the robots used hadn't killed them. The last thing the robot had confirmed was that they had both survived.   


"Computer, I want to see the robot's last visual scan."   


Immediately an image appeared on the screen. It was a fist.   


"Rewind, one quarter speed."   


The fist began to pull back slowly. But not slow enough. It looked like it was moving at human speed. The image was rewinding at one quarter speed.   


"Stop."   


The image froze. Trunks' face was clearly visible on the screen.   


Osiris stared at the snarling face for a minute. Then a slow smile crept over his face.   


"I will remember you." he said quietly. "When the Golden Moon comes, you will be one of the first to die."   
  
  
  
  


Goten groaned and opened his eyes. At first, everything looked blurry, but it only took a fraction of a second for his vision to clear. His muscles ached, as if he had just been in a horrible fight. But... what had happened?   


He saw Trunks' face suddenly in his field of vision, and it all snapped back. He had been out for perhaps fifteen seconds.   


"Goten? Can you hear me, buddy?" Trunks' voice sounded worried. Goten opened his eyes a little wider (they had started to close again) and sat up.   


"Shit." he muttered. "What was that?"   


Trunks narrowed his eyes. "You mean the thing that attacked you? I wish I knew. It disappeared."   


"What? What do you mean it disappeared?"   


Trunks gestured over to the spot on the grass where the thing had landed. "I think it was some kind of robot. I got down here to see if you were alright, and when I looked up, it was gone."   


Goten shook his head. "That's nuts."   


Trunks nodded. "Yep, it's nuts. Real nuts. But I saw it."   


Goten reached around gingerly and touched the two burns on the back of his neck. As soon as his fingers touched them, he winced and drew them back in pain.   


"Trunks, how bad is my neck?"   


Trunks craned his head and tilted Goten's so he could get a view of the burns. The skin was charred black.   


"That must have been one hell of a jolt." he said grimly. "I could swear he shot you with electricity. I don't know anything else that would do that."   


"Well, let's go up to Korin's and get a senzu bean. We can tell my dad about this while we're there."   


Trunks nodded. "Let's go."   


They took off and flew toward the tower.   
  
  
  
  


Vegeta sat cross legged on the floor of the gravity room. He wasn't training, just thinking. Though, with the machine set at six hundred fifty times earth's gravity, it was training even without moving.   


Ever since Goku had gone off with Uubu, he had felt distinctly uneasy. He wasn't really sure why, but the feeling was there, just the same.   


It wasn't as if he didn't have enough to keep him occupied. He was busy with super saiyajin three, which he had reached a few months ago. The first time he had done it, he had destroyed the gravity room and a good chunk of capsule corp. along with it. He had discovered that when Goku had said, 'it's not the easiest thing to control,' it had been the biggest understatement he had ever heard. Until you got used to it, it was almost impossible to control. He had felt like the power would tear him apart.   


The first time, he had only been able to hold the form for about three minutes before he had passed out. After that, he had gone off into the wilderness that surrounded their little bit of civilization and trained until Bulma fixed the gravity chamber. He had learned to do better. Now, he could hold the form for close to a half hour. Not very long, but better than even Gotenks had done.   


But that had nothing to do with the uneasy feeling. For just over two years, since Goku had taken Uubu to Dende's lookout to train, he had felt a strange apprehension. As if someone was whispering in his ear.   


Something is coming.   


Maybe something was. Who knew? But there was nothing he could do, and worrying didn't help. It only wore on his nerves. He wasn't that used to feeling worried.   


He stood and began a quick series of kicks, punches, blocks, and small blasts that were directed back at him. Training was as good a way as any to get things off his mind. He didn't do the things humans so often did, like drink or drugs, so his only outlet was training and Bulma.   


He smiled at the last thought as he continued to throw punches. No matter how angry she got, or how much she yelled, he would only smirk at her. And usually if they started arguing, they would end up in bed an hour later.   


Oh, well. He thought. If something is coming, it won't help me at all to be apprehensive about it.   


He continued his training.   
  
  
  
  


Uubu spun a kick at Gohan, which the demi-saiyajin blocked expertly. The shock of the kick sent waves of energy down through the air, making the floor rumble. A split second after the kick was ended, they both blurred away again.   


Goku sat on the floor, watching them and smiling. He was really proud of Gohan. He had quit training for close to ten years, and just decided to pick it back up one day. He could still use his mystic ability, though it was a little weaker from not training for so long. And, on a whole, he had bounced back rather well.   


Once he had started training again, life had been a little different. He had a job teaching at Orange Star High, but he wasn't the 'nerd' that was expected. He came to class wearing a suit, sure, but he had traded his glasses in for contact lenses, and he seemed to have a knack for making things fun for kids. Most of them liked him, and those who didn't, didn't say much. He pulled in a good salary.   


All in all, Goku was very proud of him. He was proud of Goten too, though his younger son only worked at a restaurant and didn't want to worry about good grades in school. Goku understood that Goten was more like him than Gohan or ChiChi. Goten was the kind of person that had great potential in life, but only used it to get enough money for the day and a place to sleep at night.   


His son was actually pretty smart, despite always being absent minded. Goku was the same way. Teachers would get mad at him daily for not using his brain more.   


Suddenly, Goku's thoughts were interrupted. He sensed Goten and Trunks outside somewhere, probably at Korin's.   


Korin's meant senzu beans. Senzu beans meant someone had been hurt.   


He jumped up. "Uubu! Gohan! Come with me down to Korin's, will you?"   


The two stopped their spar in mid move and looked down.   


"Why, what's wrong, dad?" Gohan asked curiously.   


"Oh, probably nothing. But I just sensed Goten and Trunks down at Korin's."   


Gohan and Uubu understood immediately why he was worried.   


"Okay, let's go." Gohan said. Uubu nodded and followed them.   
  
  
  
  


Goku, Gohan, and Uubu got to Korin's part of the tower just as Trunks and Goten were getting their senzu bean. When they landed, the white cat and the two demi-saiyajin turned and looked at them curiously.   


"Hey, dad!" Goten said happily.   


Goku smiled back. "Hey, Goten!"   


They embraced briefly, before Trunks cut in.   


"Hey, Goku. We were just going to come up there to you, actually. There's something we need to discuss."   


Goku raised one eyebrow questioningly. "What's that?"   


So Trunks spilled out a short version of what had happened, beginning with the two sparring and ending with them coming here to get a senzu bean. Goten was holding the bean in his hand now, but he hadn't made any move to eat it yet.   


Goku was looking from one to the other of them gravely. "Let me see those burns."   


Goten turned his head, and Goku stepped up to look. The skin was charred black, and he thought it was probably hurting a lot. He touched it gingerly, and Goten drew in a hiss of breath through clenched teeth. Goku drew back.   


"That looks like it hurts. Go ahead and eat that senzu bean." he said.   


Goten smiled and did so. In a couple seconds, all trace of the burn was gone.   


Goku was standing with his arms crossed, looking at the ground with a thoughtful expression on his face. Gohan and Uubu looked on, not sure what to do.   


"I think I can help."   


Goku looked up (not far up) at the small white cat on it's hind legs.   


"What is it, Korin?" Goku asked. "Do you know what they're talking about?"   


Korin smiled a bit. "I might. If you want to wait here, I think I have something."   


Goku nodded, and Korin went off into the small room at the back of the tower.   


Goten heaved a deep breath. "So, Gohan, how's it going?"   


Gohan smiled. "Pretty good. What about you? Keeping in shape?"   


Goten laughed. "You know how it is. I never have time to train anymore."   


They talked on.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Krillin was laying on the beach of Kame island, looking at the clouds. Next to him lay Juuhachi-gou, his wife. They had been sitting there for hours, neither saying so much as a whole sentence. They didn't rally need to, they were so in tune with each other. There was probably not a happier (or more mismatched) couple among the Z fighters.   


Marron was out somewhere, probably the mall. It was easier now that she was old enough to be on her own for a good part of the time. Much as Krillin liked master Roshi, he wasn't to keen on leaving his teenage daughter alone with him.   


The sound of the waves on the beach was relaxing, and Krillin found himself fighting off sleep part of the time. Almost out of habit, he began to scan the kis of people in the area. It was something he did quite often, really for no reason.   


He felt Goku, Gohan, and Uubu up at the lookout. Trunks and Goten were with them, which was uncommon, but did happen once in a while. He felt Tien and Choutzu, training off somewhere in the woods. He could feel Vegeta in his gravity room, and the assorted weaker kis of Bulma, Bura, Videl, Pan, and ChiChi, as well as the other, even smaller, kis of uncountable humans.   


His eyes opened a bit. He thought he felt something else...   


Just then, he felt a heavy hand on his arm.   


"Juu-chan?" he sat up and looked at his wife. "Is something wrong?"   


She did look worried. Actually, she looked just plain scared, which was not normal at all.   


"Krillin, my scanners picked up something strange..."   


"Are you sure? I don't sense anything." but he thought he had, just for a second. He sense a ki that was somehow... wrong. Not evil, or bad, just not right.   


She shook her head. "It's not ki. It's some kind of machine, giving out a huge amount of electricity. I'm not sure what it is, but it feels close. It almost feels like..." she paused, as if she wasn't sure, "like a cyborg, or an android."   


As if on cue, they both stood up. He could feel it too, almost. Not ki, but sort of a sixth sense.   


Suddenly, Juuhachi-gou's eyes went wide. "Krillin, behind you!"   


He spun and put his arms up in an instinctive block, just in time to stop a kick that had been aimed for his neck. The shock traveled all the way up his arms and through his shoulders. Before he even dropped his arms, he felt that there was something quite wrong. There was no ki coming from whatever had hit him.   


He flipped back, out of the way of another kick that was aimed at his sternum. He landed next to his wife, and got a look at the thing that was attacking him.   


It looked exactly identical to the one that had attacked Goten. It's head was smooth and shiny black, no face. It's whole body was the same color.   


And, though they didn't know it, this thing was in connection with the nearly one hundred others like it on the planet. It was already radioing out for assistance.   


"What the hell is that thing?" Krillin asked. Juuhachi-gou shook her head. She had no idea.   


"Well, I'm not waiting to find out!" Krillin charged at it, slamming a punch that was blocked.   


He and the robot began exchanging blows. It fought like a human, and moved faster than Krillin did. It was fairly obvious from the first punch, however, that Krillin's strength was greater. The robot had blocked with it's arm, and the punch had left a dent.   


Just then, Juuhachi-gou sensed more.   


And just after she sensed them, she saw them.   


Three more, coming straight for them.   


"Krillin!" she yelled, "Look out, there's more of them!"   


Two immediately landed on her, and she had no more time to talk. She was fighting. The other went after Krillin.   


He was going to lose if this kept up. He was stronger than one of these things, but they were too fast, and two on one was pretty crappy odds. He took a shot to the mouth that sent him sprawling.   


He got to his feet, blood dripping from one corner of his mouth.   


"Okay, then. If that's how you want it." he muttered. His aura burst to life around him, blowing sand and rocks away.   


He flew back into the fight.   
  
  
  
  


Korin had just walked back out of the room with a huge book held under his arm when his smile disappeared and a look of worry passed over his face.   


"I think a couple of you go down to Kame island.": he said flatly. "There's some trouble down there."   


Goku's head snapped around. He had been laughing, but now the laughter stopped. "What do you mean? What happened?"   


Korin waved one paw in the air. "It'll be okay, but I think someone should go help. Otherwise, it might not be okay."   


Gohan stood up. "I'll go. Do you think I'll be enough, or should I take someone with me?"   


Korin looked Gohan up and down. "You'll do. But be quick about it! There's something I need to tell you all."   


Gohan nodded and took off.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


once he had powered up, the odds had become a little more even. He had been training a lot lately, and he guessed his strength and his wife's were about equal now. She seemed to be doing okay, and he had knocked one of his attackers to the ground. He was holding the other one by the arms, trying to keep away from the buzzing prongs that had sprouted out of it's right wrist. Just the sound was enough to tell him that they were carrying a pretty good jolt of electricity.   


He thought he had everything under control, when the one he had knocked to the ground, and he thought was out of the fight, slammed a fist into the small of his back. He let out a cry of pain and released the arms of the robot in front of him, which immediately jabbed the electric prongs at him. He had just enough time to dodge them, and they shot out a blue arc of electricity about five feet long just to his left.   


Which turned out to be very good for him, because it hit the robot that had just punched him from behind. It let out a horrible squall, like fingernails on a blackboard, only ten times louder, and dropped out of the air, smoking.   


Krillin also dropped to the ground, though he landed on his feet. The pain in his back was horrible, and he expected he would need a senzu bean when the was all over.   


The other robot dropped in front of him, pointed the prongs at him, and fired.   


He jumped out of the way, just in time. The electricity burned a small patch of the ground by his feet.   


He smiled in a way that suggested he had just though of something wonderfully ironic. "Is that it? Come on, give me your best."   


The thing had no face, so he couldn't tell if he had effected it's emotions (did it even have any?), but it pointed at him and fired.   


Juuhachi-gou was having worse luck. One of the robots held her, and the other was about to shoot her with the electric barbs.   


She elbowed the one holding her, and it's grip loosened enough for her to jump free. The electric shot hit it, and it let out the same squall that Krillin's had, and fell to the ground.   


She turned to look at it, and smiled. Serves you right. She thought savagely.   


But she regretted turning for even a second, and had brief time to kick herself over it, when she felt the steel electric prongs against her neck.   


Before she had time to turn, she felt the horrible clench of electricity passing through her body at unbelievable speed, and then her internal computers shut down on their own, to avoid total burnout. Her body froze, and fell to the ground.   


Krillin, almost as if on cue, turned just in time to see his wife hit the sand.   


"JUU-CHAN!!" he yelled out, letting his guard down for just long enough. The robot he was fighting grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms down. The one that had just KO'd Juuhachi-gou turned and pointed it's metal prongs at him.   


He shut his eyes. This is the end, he thought.   


Then, he felt it.   


Just after he felt it, he saw it.   


A white blur that he at first didn't realize was Gohan slammed into the robot that was about to electrocute him, demolishing it into scrap.   


Krillin grinned slyly, and surged his ki as high as it would go. It knocked the robot that was holding him off just enough for him to jump away. As soon as he hit the ground, he began to power up.   


"Ka...me...ha...me..." he cupped his hands behind him as glowing energy began to gather, and shine out in bars of light.   


The robot tilted it's head to the side, almost as if it had no idea what he wad doing. As a matter of fact, it didn't. It had not been programmed to fight warriors as powerful as the Z fighters. If Osiris had known how powerful the earth's warriors were, he never would have sent his robots.   


"HAA!!" he yelled out, and a beam of blue energy nearly three feet across flew out, and before the robot had time to move, the kamehameha had sheared through it like a hot knife through butter.   


The blast exploded over the water, sending up spraying jets almost one hundred feet. Before the first of them came down again, Krillin had powered down and was at his wife's side.   


He held her hand and rubbed it. "Juu-chan? Are you okay?"   


Any normal human would have been long dead. But her cybernetic body was built to take more than a normal human, and as her sensory input computer felt Krillin's hand rubbing hers, the cybernetic parts that enhanced her brain whirred back to life. Her eyes fluttered open.   


"Krillin?" she coughed a bit and sat up. By this time, Gohan was kneeling next to the former monk, looking with concern at Juuhachi-gou. Both of their faces lit up when she rose.   


Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. "Krillin! Are you okay?"   


He nodded. "Just fine. Thanks to Gohan." he grinned.   


She nodded. "Good. We need to warn everyone."   


The other two looked at her with confusion. "Why?" Krillin asked. "The things are dead, see?"   


He pointed to where the one that had been electrocuted had fallen, but it was gone.   


"What the hell?" he muttered.   


Gohan was still looking at Juuhachi-gou. "Why do we need to warn everyone?"   


She looked scared still, which made them both scared. To frighten Juuhachi-gou, the situation had to be bad.   


"Why do we need to warn them?" Gohan asked again.   


"Because there are ninety seven more of these things on the planet."   


Krillin paled a bit, and Gohan swallowed nervously.   


"Listen," the demi saiyajin said. "Can you guys come back to Korin's with me? There is definitely something bad going on."   


They both nodded, not even bothering to ask questions. They knew the answers would come eventually. Without another word, they all took off for Korin's tower.   


Just as they left, the door to Kame house opened, and Roshi stuck his head out.   


"Hello? Is something going on out here? I thought I heard some noise."   


He saw the burnt spots on the grass, and the three figures flying away in the distance.   


"Best not to ask." he said shortly, and shut the door.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


if Krillin had still been thinking about it, he might have mentioned the strange ki he had sensed, the one that felt wrong. But he had completely forgotten about it.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


ChiChi was cooking a huge pot of stew, expecting Goten home anytime. It was almost done.   


Just as she was putting the lid back on to let it simmer a little more, there was a knock at the door.   


She puzzled over this, wondering who would be knocking. Goten would just walk in. After all, he lived here.   


She walked into the front room, wiping her hands on her apron, and opened the door. When she saw the man standing on the other side, she let out a little yelp of surprise.   


It wasn't anyone she knew. And she was glad that she didn't know him, on her first glance.   


He had hair the color of blood that hung just a little past his shoulders in wavy curls. That wasn't really startling, but his face...   


His skin was like that of Osiris (though ChiChi didn't know that). It seemed to glow in a stark, stabbing white, but didn't exactly give off light. It was as white as paper. His eyes glittered like polished rubies. The irises were the same color as his hair. For some reason, when she was scared, she noticed details very well, and she saw that he had abnormally long, glossy fingernails.   


"Excuse me." he said in a soft voice. He didn't sound mean at all, but she knew that didn't mean anything. "Is this the home of Son Goku?"   



	2. Part One: Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z. 

Author's Note: This may look familiar to anyone who has read any of my stuff before, and with good reason. It started when I was trying to do a little surgery on my fic, 'Morgoth the Demon'. (my apologies to anyone who was reading it, I've taken it down) I ended up trying to redo so much, and had so many new ideas that I ended up with a whole new story, and only a few similarities. So, here it is. This takes place after DBZ, negating GT altogether. Enjoy. 

The Golden Moon 

by Rev. Vampyre   
  
PART ONE: The Vampire Osiris.

Chapter One:   
  


"Boy, Goten, if only your dad could see you now." Trunks laughed, helping his best friend off the grass. "You haven't been training that hard lately, have you?" 

Goten shook his head and brushed the dust off of his shirt, and tightened the pony-tail his hair was tied back in. "I have other things to worry about. Geeze, it's not like I'm you or anything. I have places to go, people to see..." 

"You mean girls to see." Trunks laughed. "I still don't understand why you have to say yes to every one of them that asks you out." 

Goten shrugged. "Well, I don't get how you can't." 

"If I did, I wouldn't have any time to sleep." Trunks laughed, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Anyway, it isn't fun if you're with someone different every night. What if you call her by the wrong name?" 

Goten smiled. "I do that a lot, actually." 

They laughed together for a while. It had been weeks since they had been together. Trunks helped his mom run capsule corp, and Goten was always busy keeping his dates, so they rarely got time to train together anymore. 

"Besides, I have Marron." Trunks said. 

Goten shook his head. "I' supposed to be the naive one, Trunks. She's fifteen, you're seventeen. How can you take her seriously?" 

Trunks and Goten proceeded to argue playfully, never noticing the thing with no face watching them from behind a tree. 

It was shiny black all over, and it's face had no features whatsoever, but other than that, it's body was basically human. 

It's computer brain ticked off data. 

__

Demi saiyajin males, warrior class C. 

There were a few barely audible clicks inside it's head as it's computers worked. 

__

Possible threats. Radioing information to ship. 

A small panel opened on the back of it's shiny black head, and an antennae popped out. Radio signals began to broadcast from it, sending the information out into space.   
  
  
  


Gohan was paying a routine visit to Dende's lookout to see his father. It was something he did at least once a week. 

After Goku had gone with Uubu to train, Gohan had made it a regular task to visit. It kept him in shape, as he could hardly help training with them, and he liked to visit with his father anyway. 

He liked to train, even though something in him hated fighting. He had stopped after Cell, but now he did it nearly every day. Not as intense as, say, Vegeta, but he kept in shape. He had to watch himself, or he would startle his students on accident. He worked as a teacher at Orange Star High, where he had gone to school. 

He landed on the lookout, and immediately rushed past Mr. Popo with a quick hello, and down the stairs into the training room. 

As he expected, his father and the mohawked boy Uubu were in the middle of an intense spar. 

Not wanting to disturb their training, he sat cross legged on the floor to watch. 

It was something to see, too. Uubu really did have Buu's power, that was clear. And Goku was an excellent teacher. Gohan had no trouble keeping up with the kicks, punches, and small blasts that made up the fight, but anyone else besides Vegeta probably would have. They were _fast_. And they weren't even going all out. If Uubu had powered up to his full potential, the resulting spar would easily cause severe damage to the training area. And Goku... well, if Goku powered up to his full power, that is, SSj3, just the rush of energy would have destroyed the tower and the surrounding land for miles. 

Gohan sat and watched the two with interest. It was a good fight, but not near some he had seen them in. Once a month or so, Goku and Uubu would go out to some desert or another and train at full power. Or at least at Uubu's full power. Now those were good fights. 

Goku was on the defensive, as usual. He had taught Gohan the same way. He would teach a few basic moves, and then let you attack. Once you were able to get through his defenses a couple times, he would start to fight back. 

It was a pretty good method. Gohan had seen a lot of teaching methods, and his father's had always been the best. When Gohan had trained with Piccolo, the namek had not really known how to teach. He had no experience. So, basically, he attacked, and Gohan defended himself. One of the reasons Gohan had always frozen up as a child was that he really didn't know that well how to attack. Once he had trained under his father, though, he was able to fight Piccolo on more of an equal playing field. Then he had increased by leaps and bounds. 

He was snapped out of the daydream he had barely been aware he was having by his father's hand on his shoulder. 

"You awake, Gohan?" Goku's beaming smile looked down. 

Gohan jumped to his feet. "Oh, how's it going? I just stopped by to say hi. Ya know, see how you guys were doing." 

Goku laughed. "You mean you didn't come to train?" 

"Well..." 

It was fairly obvious that was what Gohan had come for. He was wearing his orange gi that looked just like the one Goku used to wear. Now, Goku always dresses in a blue and yellow gi. 

"Hello, Gohan." Uubu said cheerfully, bowing. "Nice to see you." 

Gohan bowed back. "You wanna spar?" 

Uubu smiled and looked to Goku. "Sensei?" 

Goku nodded. "Go ahead. I need a rest anyway. I'm getting too old for this." he laughed. 

Gohan walked out onto the large expanse that took up close to half of the inside of the lookout. Uubu walked up next to him. 

"Half power okay?" Gohan asked. 

Uubu nodded. Half power was still higher than Goku and him usually went inside, but it would be okay if they were careful. 

Gohan summoned his mystic power in a flash. He only powered up halfway, like he said. He wasn't quite as strong as his father, in fact he wasn't really even close, but his full power could still cause the lookout to crumble pretty easily. 

Uubu surrounded himself with his white aura, amazingly powerful for one his age. He was a few years younger than Goten and Trunks, but already more than twice their power. 

Gohan grinned and flew at the boy.   
  
  
  


Dende was very nervous. No, more like paranoid. 

He told himself over and over again that he had nothing to be paranoid about. It was just a stupid legend. 

But it was more than that. Even King Kai knew it, no matter what he said out loud. The Golden Moon was coming. 

Kaio-sama had contacted the young Kami a few days ago. He hadn't really said much, but he had been worried, it was easy to see. 

Dende could remember their conversation perfectly. 

__

"Now, I don't want to worry you, Dende." he had said telepathically. "But there may be some trouble coming your way. Not very likely, but you should prepare, all the same." 

__

Dende, now used to being contacted for something that wasn't likely to happen, had been a bit annoyed. "Kaio-sama, I realize that you love jokes, and I realize that you are much higher ranking than me, but please, this is not the time." 

__

"Kids these days." the Kai had muttered. "No respect." 

__

"Well, what is it?" 

__

"Well, I can't really explain in a way that won't make you flip, so why don't you read up on it. You know all the books in the library. Look up the legend of the Golden Moon." 

__

Dende let out a deep sigh. "Is this something important, King Kai? I'm pretty busy at the moment." 

__

"Of course it's important!" Kaio-sama had yelled. "Would I bother to contact you otherwise!? Just look up the legend already!" 

__

"Okay, jeeze!" 

__

Dende stalked off to the library to look for the specified legend. But King Kai hadn't been quite finished. 

__

"Dende?" he broke in, softer and more calm. 

__

"Yes?" 

__

"Just remember, it's only a legend. It probably won't happen. I just want you to prepare." 

__

And the connection had been severed. 

So Dende did what he was asked. That was why he was terrified. 

It had only taken him a couple hours of searching through the nearly unlimited texts before he found what he was looking for. He had just finished reading the rather lengthy tale behind the legend, and then the legend itself, which was actually rather short. 

"It can't be." he said to himself. "This Golden Moon, it's illogical! Impossible! No, it'll never happen." 

He wasn't so sure though. He wasn't sure if the moon would be gold one month from now, or if the horrors that the legend predicted would actually happen. In all honesty, he feared it, but also doubted it. 

So he said nothing to Goku, or anyone else. If he had, quite a bit would have been avoided. Or maybe not. 

"If it is going to happen," he said to himself, "Best not to worry them. They can't stop it, so why get everyone worked up?"   
  


While Goten and Trunks resumed their spar, the thing with no face in the bushes received a reply to it's information. 

__

Any possible threat or competition is to be destroyed, as ordered by Osiris-sama. 

As this information processed in the robot's brain, it started forward through the brush. If Trunks and Goten had not been sparring, they would have seen it coming. But they were, so they didn't. 

When it got to the edge of the clearing, it held out one shiny black arm. The hand opened at the wrist on a hinge, and two metal prongs extended out. 

__

Demi saiyajin: danger level 8.4. Use of stealth recommended. 

It crept forward, and the boys were so absorbed in their fight that they didn't notice it until Goten felt the metal prongs against the skin of his neck. 

His reaction was a little slower than it should have been. He really hadn't been training much lately. If he had, he may have been quicker. 

He tried to spin, an instinct his father had drilled into him, but before he could, enough electricity to run capsule corp. for close to a year came in a blue arc, passing from the prongs into his body. 

The effect was horrible. He had been shocked before, but never like this. Every muscle in his body contracted with unimaginable pain. His hair flew up, like he was going super saiyajin. It let out a puff of smoke on the ends. 

Then, it stopped. Goten slumped to the ground, as limp as a rag. It had taken less than a second. 

Trunks' reaction time was little better, but good enough. 

"Bastard!" he yelled out. His hair flashed gold and he slammed the hardest punch he could muster into the flat space where it's face would have been. It ripped through the thing's face like tinfoil. 

He ripped his hand out, and the robot (it was plainly a robot, it had wires and gadgets sticking out of the hole Trunks' fist had made) fell over, sparks sputtering from it's destroyed head. 

Trunks spit to one side, and his hair fell again, going back to the pale lavender it was naturally. 

"Teach you to attack us." 

Goten let out a groan. Trunks immediately knelt down and looked at his friend. 

It looked like he would be okay. He had a nasty burn where the metal prongs had touched him, but he was already coming around. 

Trunks sighed with relief. It looked like Goten would be okay. 

He looked past his friend at the thing that lay further away. He wanted to take a look at it. 

But when he looked up to see it, it was gone. 

The Lowest Hells were nasty places. Usually the only beings that would even venture there were the Marshals, who were demons that were in charge of torture, and the very most powerful gods. The Lowest Hells were places where beings like Majin Buu were sent. Mortals never entered, but especially evil entities were condemned there for eternity. 

It was a vast, bare plain of rock and hard packed earth. The sky overhead was a bruised purple-black. Lightning snaked all the way to the ground, at all times. There were pools of boiling magma, water, and blood at regular intervals. Any resident of the Lowest Hells knew to keep away from these. Unpleasant things lived in them. Things that had been born there and bred to do only one thing. Eat. 

Aside from the normal torture centers where everyone was brought periodically, there were other places. They called them 'Houses of Correction', but what they were in all actuality were bloodbaths. They were reserved for the worst of the worst. The beings that were able to terrorize even the inmates confined in this place. Most were simply too powerful to be let loose. 

One such being was Morgoth. 

He was actually a demon, and had once been a Martial here. Eons ago. But he, unlike the others, possessed free will. Perhaps Enma had been unspecific when he told the smiths how to make this one, or perhaps it was an accident. But Morgoth was free. And he hated. 

Hated the Houses of Correction, hated the other Marshals who had him imprisoned here, and especially hated mortals. 

The reason he was incarcerated was that he had broken out of hell. As impossible as it seemed, he had done it. 

Even that should have only earned him a week or so in the place. But, he hadn't just broken out and been brought back. He had broken out, killed off most of the population of the universe, and then played with what remained until he was finally killed himself. 

None of the Marshals knew what had killed Morgoth, and he certainly wasn't going to tell them. 

But when he died and was sent back here, there had been a mob. Every other Marshal had risen against him, on the orders of every god in the universe. And he was buried here, held down by bonds that shot him so full of electricity that he was stricken unconscious if he moved. He was growing immune to them, but it still hurt. 

He could break out of hell again now, if he tried. At least, he had a good chance. But he was waiting for something. 

He was waiting for the golden moon.

=============== O ===============


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three:

Vegeta's eyes shot open. He had gone back to meditating for a while, when he sensed it.

The same ki Krillin had sensed, and realized that there was something wrong with it. He could sense it now, too. It was at Goku's house. He had sensed ChiChi's ki go up in fear.

Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped up and ran out the door of the gravity chamber, down the hallway, and out the door of the house, ignoring Bulma's questions of what was wrong or where he was going. 

The second he was out the door, his hair blazed gold and he took of into the air. If he had developed nothing else in his time on earth, he had developed loyalty, so while he didn't much like ChiChi, he would protect her because she was Goku's mate.

He flew straight at Goku's house, his aura growing white hot around him.

The three warriors flew through the air in complete silence. There was really nothing to say. Krillin kept feeling that he should try to make conversation, at least talk about what had just happened, but all he could think of was, _Here we go again._

They had flying for about five minutes when Gohan turned his head to them slightly and said, "There it is."

Korin's tower loomed up in front of them, a white pillar against the blue sky. They checked their speed slightly out of habit, swinging to face upward, and began the flight to the top, so high up that you could practically see the curvature of the earth. The air soon became so thin that any normal human would have no chance of breathing.

Soon they could see the round bulge at the top that was Korin and Yajirobi's home, and they all began to slow, and then stopped as they drew level with it. They floated over the rail at the rim, and landed.

Goku turned to them. Everyone was gathered around a low table, sitting crosslegged and leaning over to see whatever was placed there. "Hey guys!" Goku said happily, but there was an undertone of anxiety in his voice. "We've been waiting for you."

Gohan saw immediately that his father was worried about something. 

"What is it, dad?" he asked, walking over to look his father in the eye.

Goku swallowed nervously. "I'm... worried about your mother. There's a strange ki at the house."

Gohan stared blankly at his father for an instant, and then turned to fly back off the tower, this time back toward the house.

"Stop!" Korin's voice said commandingly, and the white energy that was just surrounding Gohan vanished abruptly as he turned to look at Korin, queations in his eyes.

"She'll be fine. Trust me." The cat god said with a smile. 

For a minute Gohan just stared from the cat to his father. Then his muscles loosened and he walked to the table and sat down.

"Okay. I trust you." Gohan said. "So, what is this that you have to show us all?"

Korin gestured to the table, which Gohan could now see held the thick leather book the cat had been carrying when he left. As he watched, Korin reached down with one paw and opened the book to somewhere just past the middle. The pages were yellowed and ragged at the dges, and the book's leather creaked when it was opened.

"This book is older than any of you could possibly comprehend." Korin said. "It holds the information that could either save our lives and this planet, or doom them both."

The page he was gesturing to said, in flowing scirpt, _The Golden Moon._

They stared in mute facination. 

"I'm going to tell you all the story of creation." Korin said. "It really spans million of years, but I don't have time to tell you the whole tale, so you'll have to settle for the freeze-dried version."

"So long ago that the time can't be mesured in years, there were three gods. Their names probably aren't even pronounceable in any human tounge, so I'll tell you what they were, basically. Evil, Good, and Power."

"The universe then was nothing. One day, Good decided that it wanted to create life, so it made matter. Power saw this, and decided that there should be a force to govern and produce life, so Power created ki. The two went hand in hand for generations."

"But, as I'm sure you can guess, Evil didn't like this. When the gods created life and ki, they became physical beings, subject to physical law. So, to get revenge on Good and Power, Evil, the strongest of the gods, created death."

"Good and Power were outraged, because death would take them eventually, just like it would take their creations. So, to make themselves and every other being with a soul eternal again, they created Other World. Evil was very angry, but he didn't let on. He was a pretty smart guy, even though he was vengeful and, well, evil."

"When Evil was getting ready to die, he put all of his remaining energy and power into one thing. He made the Golden Moon, right here on earth."

"The Golden Moon did a lot of things. Any mortal who came within miles of it's light was made unimaginably strong. It was very high in Brute Waves, the waves that make you saiyajin turn into oozaru. But most of all, it's very center was a gateway between Hell and earth."

"When you came through the gate, you were basically eternally young. You would never grow old, but you could be killed. Evil used it all the time to go between Hell and the living world."

"Normally, Good and Power wouldn't have cared, as long as Evil didn't damage their divine plan. But Evil was letting mortals use the Golden Moon as well, and that _was _messing up the divine plan. But Good and Power couldn't force Evil to stop using it, as I said, he was the strongest. So, they finally tricked him. One day, when he had gone back to Hell to let out more mortal souls, they destroyed the Golden Moon. Evil was trapped in Hell, until his own mortal subjects killed him. When they did this, his sould disappeared, leaving only the residue bahind that pollutes the minds of people like Frieza."

"So..." Goku said after a pause, "this thing's gone then."

Korin shook his head. "Not quite. See, Evil did one last thing before his spirit died. He used the last of his magic to put a curse on the whole universe. He said that, exactly one billion years after his death, the Golden Moon would reappear. He wanted all the evil beings that were locked up in Hell to have nearly forever to build their power, and then, they would be able to get back into the world and destroy it."

"Soon after all this, Power became the first Kaio-shin, and Good diffused itself into a force, rather than a god, and made the other gods whose decendants are still here today."

There was a long silence.

ChiChi's broom broke over the head of the red haired man, and he staggered back into the yard.

"Kami! What is that thing made of!?" he yelled. 

ChiChi looked at the broken broom handle in her fist with a frown, and then threw it at the man like a spear.

His hand shot up and caught it. "Please, I didn't mean to scare you. I' just looking for Goku. Is he around?"

ChiChi glared at him. "Why do you want to see Goku?"

The man didn't answer, however. His face suddenly looked wary, and his head snapped to the right.

"I sense a very hostile ki coming this..."

He was cut off when Vegeta hit him like an express train, slamming him off his feet and through several trees before he came to a stop about one hundred yards away in the woods.

"Vegeta?" ChiChi asked in a confused voice. The saiyajin prince's hair glowed in the golden energy of super saiyajin. ChiChi smiled.

"Well, I guess you took care of him!" she grinned. "Thank you, Vegeta. I'm sure Goku will be gtrateful as..."

"Quiet." Vegeta snapped, and ChiChi's mouth snapped shut. "He's not dead."

No sooner had Vegeta said that then the man came barreling out of the trees, a nearly inaudible buzz filling the air at the sound of his ki.

Vegeta threw up his arms in an X, blocking a punch that had been aimed for his face. The punches kept slamming into his arms.

And he realized with some surprise that they _hurt_!

He roared with power, his ki pushing the unnamed assailant back a few feet. His hair grew a bit longer, and the spiked were sharper. Lightning bolts of ki surrounded him, anpping around his body and singing the grass when they hit it.

"Ready to give up?" he smirked at the man.

"Hardly." The man gave Vegeta a smirk of his own. "Kaio-ken!"

Vegeta's eyes went wide as he recognized the move that only the students of Kaio-sama knew. Burning red energy surronded the man, his hair flying, his eyes burning. He was levitated just a bit off the ground, staring at Vegeta.

His ki had jumped into the stratosphere, greater than Vegeta's in his present state.

Once the saiyajin prince got over his innitial shock, the smirk returned to his face.

"Okay, then. If that's the way you want it."

Vegeta's voice roared out again, and this time, energy so bright that neither ChiChi or the man could look at it steadily surrounded him. Rays of ki seemed to rush in at his body.

Vegeta's ki kept rising as he prepared to go super saiyajin three.

Whoever had said that there was safety in numbers was a blithering idiot as far as Osiris was concerned. His robots had been in numbers, four against three, and they were all scrap.   


Right now his ship's computer was busy giving the order for all ninety seven remaining robots to be teleported back immediately, before they, too, ran into these abnormally powerful warriors.   


He was snarling with rage, his icy blue eyes narrowed into slits as he stomped around the room, pacing back and forth so hard that his feet left small dents in the nearly indestructible metal of the ship's floor. No one had been able to destroy any of his robots for many long centuries.   


He didn't believe in having numerous bodyguards that were all weaker than him. If his robots could clearly not handle the job, or if it was even questionable, he went himself. But the ships computer had picked up no powers that high. Not then, at least. It seemed that the warriors on this planet were gifted enough that they could raise and lower their ki at will. To them, it had become commonplace, but in the rest of the universe, it wasn't so easy.   


He knew what he had to do. If he was going to receive the power of the Golden Moon, he wasn't going to have any potential threats sitting around. He had to go down there and destroy them, now. As soon as all of his robots were back.   


He didn't use any armor, or pads, or anything else that most of the universe's strongest used. He kept on his plain black clothes. They looked normal, made of some moderately expensive cloth, not too baggy, but not tight. They were marvelously strong, however, and it would take quite a bit to make even the smallest tear.   


He opened a panel in the wall by pressing a button on the computer control board. When the panel of metal slid back, it revealed a silver tube of about one foot long, with a red button on one side. He picked it up and looked it over, inspecting it for any damage. It had been ages since he had used the thing.   


After a second of looking it over, he pressed the button on the side, and felt the familiar tingle as a bit of his ki was pulled into the device, and came out as a compact ki blade, about one inch around and about four feet long. All in all, it looked a bit like a star wars light saber.   


"Still works." he smiled a bit, revealing for a second two sharp, pearly canines that stuck close to half an inch lower than the rest of his teeth. "It's been a long time."   


He felt a vague but pleasant sense of looking forward, knowing that something big was about to happen, as it hadn't in centuries. He was going to fight.   


"Computer." he said in a more pleasant voice than he had used in quite a while, "Prepare the teleportation tube. I will beam down to earth just as soon as my robots are safely back."   
  
  
  
  


Vegeta's ki rose and rose. His body grew to bright to see, nearly blinding ChiChi and the man in front of Vegeta.   


His voice began to sound more like an inhuman roar than a voice, and it was just barely visible when his hair began to grow longer. All the light around them seemed to grow dark, except for the smaller red aura of the strange man, and the huge gold of Vegeta.   


Then, his voice rose to a huge volume, and the energy that had been building up inside him came rushing out. Only later would he realize that he had destroyed Goku's house entirely, and knocked ChiChi off of her feet and close to fifty feet through the air.   


The smoke and dust finally disappeared, showing a much changed Vegeta.   


His hair was more laid back, the point going out past his shoulders and a little lower than normal. The rest fell down his back, all the way to his waist in golden glowing spikes. His eyebrows were gone, and his eyes had gone from light blue to a deep green.   


His breathing was a bit heavy, and he reached up to wipe away the droplets of sweat that had collected on his forehead, but his power had gone through the roof, nearly doubling.   


The man with the red hair stood gaping at him with eyes that looked as big as dinner plates.   


"This," Vegeta said with a smirk, "is known as fighting for your life."   
  
  
  
  


"Do you guys feel that?" Goku asked nervously. "Whoever owns that strange ki took a huge jump... and Vegeta's powered up to level three."   


The others all nodded nervously. If Vegeta had needed to go to super saiyajin three to beat whoever he was fighting, it was very serious.   


"Come on!" Gohan yelled. "Turn on the burners, guys! We've got to help!"   


Goku, Trunks, and Goten's hair all flashed gold, and Gohan and Uubu's auras burst to life around them. Without a word, they all took off of Korin's tower, towards Goku's house.   


"Those children." Korin shook his head with a cynical smile. "Didn't I tell them that there was no need for that?"   
  
  
  
  


The man was staring at Vegeta in mute, open-mouthed shock. His law seemed to have come unhinged, and his eyes were huge.   


"You're a saiyajin." he said in quiet disbelief. "A super saiyajin."   


Vegeta growled. "Obviously. Now, are you going to run, or fight like a man?"   


The man's eyes narrowed just a bit. "If you're a saiyajin, you must know Son Goku." he said, ignoring Vegeta's last remark.   


Now it was Vegeta's turn to look surprised. "Kakarott? What do you want with him?"   


The man smirked a bit. "So, you do know him."   


"Of course I know him." Vegeta snarled. "I asked what you wanted with him."   


The man didn't say anything.   


"Not saying? Well, I can always beat it out of you." Vegeta smirked.   


The man's eyes widened in surprise for a second, then narrowed again.   


"Double Kaio-ken!" he shouted out, and the red aura intensified, sending his ki up another jump.   


Vegeta didn't wait for him to get back into position. His feet left the ground and he flashed forward, slamming his fist at the man.   


Vegeta was a bit shocked when the man was able to block his punch. It hadn't been his hardest, but still, the man's ki....   


His thoughts were cut off when a fist belted across his face, causing his head to snap around. Another fist connected to his gut, and he felt a bit of wind spray out of his mouth. Then, his face twisted from a look of pain into a look of rage. Rage that the man had actually been able to hit him.   


He leapt back. "Okay then. You no slouch, I see. But I can sense ki as well as I ever could, and you're not strong enough to beat me."   


The man's face twisted into a look of defiance, and he crouched into a defensive stance.   


That was when Vegeta noticed, the 'man' wasn't even that. He looked like he couldn't be any older than fifteen. The boy's skin and eyes had thrown him off at first, because they both seemed so pale-bright that they almost glowed. But it was almost a child that he was fighting.   


He let out a sigh that turned into a half growl. He had no wish to kill a kid.   


"No kid, Vegeta. Don't get that idea into your head." the boy said haltingly.   


"What the hell!?" Vegeta spit out.   


But he had no time for an explanation, because the boy launched at him again.   


Vegeta easily blocked a punch that was aimed for his face, and then with a bit more difficulty, a kick aimed for his mid-section. The boy fell to the ground gracefully and sent a leg whipping around to trip him so fast that Vegeta was just able to jump over it. Once he was in the air, he spun and slammed a foot into the boy's head, sending him flying.   


The boy stopped and righted himself, wiping the trickle of blood from his mouth as his feet lightly touched the ground. But his hand stopped in mid-wipe and his eyes narrowed, turning to the right slightly.   


"Friends of yours?" he said sarcastically, and Vegeta turned to see what he was looking at. Seven points of light along with six large ki signatures were coming this way. He recognized them immediately as Goku, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Uubu, Krillin, and Juuhachi-gou. But the boy had no such information, and apparently thought this was going to turn into a seven on one fight.   


"Another time, saiyajin." the boy smirked and, to Vegeta's surprise, he put two fingers to his forehead and vanished.   
  
  
  
  


When the seven warriors landed, ChiChi had gotten back with only a few bruises, and was busy arguing with Vegeta about her destroyed house.   


"You baka! You destroyed my house so you could beat up a kid!"   


"Listen, I need no demon spawn mate of Kakarott to tell me my mistakes. Just keep that black hole in your face shut!"   


"Uh.... guys?" Goku said hesitantly, dropping out of super saiyajin.   


"Oh, demon spawn? Look who's talking, mister walking troll doll."   


"Troll doll? Well, you're not even a doll, just a troll."   


"Guys?" Goku said again, a little louder.   


"A troll? Well, at least I'm average height!"   


"I'll have you know that I am five feet six inches, and that is average on this Kami-forsaken mud ball you call a planet."   


"GUYS!!!!!" Goku bellowed out, causing everyone to jump.   


"Oh, it's you, Kakarott. Will you make yourself useful and shut up your mate?"   


"Why don't you shut up, you..."   


"ChiChi, be quiet." Goku said absently. "Listen, Vegeta. Who was it that you were fighting, and where did they go?"   


Vegeta sighed, and his hair first shortened, then changed back to black. "Actually, it was some kid looking for you."   


Goku's eyes widened. "A kid generated that much power?"   


Vegeta nodded. "And that's not the half of it, Kakarott. He knew the Kaio-ken, and the instant transmission. And I'm fairly sure that he read my mind at least once."   


Goku's eyes widened even more. "He used the Kaio-ken!?"   


Vegeta nodded.   


Goku put a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "If he knew the Kaio-ken, I'm sure I could ask King Kai about him. Could you come with me to describe him, Vegeta?"   


The saiyajin prince nodded blandly. "I suppose. But we can't stay for long. I do not want to have to listen to any of that idiot's stupid jokes."   


Goku nodded, and turned to the rest of the warriors, who were standing behind him listening.   


"Uubu, Trunks, and Goten, you go back to Korin's and wait for us there."   


The three teens nodded, and they took off into the air without another word.   


"Well, I'm going to check on Videl and Pan. They'll start to worry if I'm gone for too long." Gohan said.   


"We'll go with you." Juuhachi-gou said. "But would you come to get Marron with us, too? If someone as powerful as what we sensed is running around, we need to stick together."   


Gohan nodded.   


"We'll meet you guys at Korin's in.." Krillin glanced down at his watch, which had not been destroyed by some miracle, "three hours. Is that enough time?"   


"Sure. If it takes any longer, King Kai'll contact you for us telepathically."   


Krillin nodded, and he, Juuhachi-gou, and Gohan took off into the air.   


Goku looked at Vegeta. "Ready to go?"   


Vegeta nodded, but they were interrupted by ChiChi.   


"What about me? Where am I supposed to go? Our house is gone!"   


Goku glanced at Vegeta.   


Vegeta sighed heavily. "I'll have the woman get you a new capsule house out here in no time. Until then, take her to Korin's. At least it will be safe there."   


Goku nodded, motioning to ChiChi. She came over and put her arm around Goku's shoulders, and gave Vegeta a black look. Then the two vanished.   


Vegeta sighed. "That woman.... is very evil." he said to himself.   



	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

Vegeta had only been waiting for a few minutes when Goku reappeared in front of him. The normally carefree saiyajin wore a look of concern on his face.   


"What is it, Kakarott?" Vegeta asked, knowing that if something worried Goku, it was probably worth knowing about.   


Goku looked at him, the worry plain on his face like a stamp. "Maybe you should get Bulma and take her to Korin's as well, Vegeta."   


The saiyajin prince raised one eyebrow in confusion. "What on earth for? If she's safe anywhere, it's probably at home with all those guns. The woman can take care of herself fairly well."   


Goku nodded. "I know. But I think this Golden Moon thing is going to be even worse than we thought. As soon as I got to Korin's, he said he had a message for me."   


"And?"   


"The message was from King Kai. He wants you and me to come to his planet right away."   


Vegeta raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side just a bit, in a gesture that Bulma would define as 'cute', mainly to annoy him. "I thought that the Kai's planet was destroyed by Cell."   


Goku shook his head and shrugged. "It was. Maybe he got a new one, or something. I dunno. As long as I can sense his ki it won't matter."   


Vegeta stared at Goku for a second, then sighed. "Well, let's go then. Bulma will be perfectly safe at home. We need to get this over with."   


Goku seemed to hesitate, that same worried look on his face, but after only a second, he nodded. Vegeta paced over next to him, his arms crossed and his face setting in a frown at having to touch a 'third class baka', even though he no longer really thought of Goku in that term and hadn't for quite a while. Goku put a hand on his shoulder, and they vanished.   
  
  
  
  


The boy with the red hair reappeared about five miles away, still relatively close by. Close enough to sense the kis of all the Z warriors, and what they were doing. He was practically kicking himself in a rage.   


"Oh, that went just perfectly!" he shouted at himself. "What a wonderful way to earn people's trust, get into fights with them! I handled that just perfectly!!"   


He sat down hard on a rock, resting his head in his hand and sighed. When he thought about it, he probably should have at least stopped when he got here to find some of the clothes that the people on this planet wore. At the moment, he was clad in a black spandex body suit with what was similar to old saiyajin armor (the kind with the hip pads) over it, only no shoulder pads. Over all that, he wore a sleeveless green trench coat.   


It wasn't the kind of thing that people on this planet clad themselves in, apparently. But it would have taken a day's careful observation to find out what was normal around here, and he didn't have that kind of time.   


That didn't make up for his carelessness in other ways, however. He had scared Goku's wife half to death, apparently. She had broken a broom over his head, and usually people only got that angry if you had scared them. Then there was Vegeta.   


"Another thing I can kick myself over." he muttered to himself sarcastically. "I get here and what's the first thing I do? Find the second strongest being on the planet, probably the fourth or fifth in the whole universe, and get into a fight with him."   


Not that it had all been his fault. Vegeta had come barreling at him like a train, so who could blame him for hitting back?   


But Vegeta was too powerful for him to fight effectively for long. The only way he could overpower the saiyajin prince would be a triple Kaio-ken, and that would cause him very serious damage after a few minutes.   


"Well, I hope I don't have to fight him. That's not what I came here for." the boy muttered to himself. "And I guess I've kicked myself over this for long enough."   


He stood up off the rock, trying to decide what to do. Goku had teleported off the planet, for what purpose the boy couldn't imagine. It wasn't really important why, so he didn't trouble about it. Right now, he wondered if it would be better to try and talk to someone more placid than Vegeta. Maybe Goku's son, or the short one.   


It was a dilemma, true. He thought from the feel of the two warriors' kis that they would be more peaceful, but that was never a sure thing. And Goku's son was half saiyajin. That meant he could either be quite docile or a raving maniac. Demi-saiyajin tended to be one or the other.   


"Well, I guess I could just wait for Goku to get back." he said to himself. "But that could be a while."   


He tapped his chin for a second in thought. It didn't look like any of the others would be leaving the planet any time soon. It would probably be safe to wait for a little while, and if Goku didn't come back, then try his luck with one of the others.   


"I'll give it two hours." he sighed, and sat back down on his rock. "Then I guess I'll have to try the midget. He seems like my best bet."   


He crossed his legs and sat there staring off into the desert.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Teleporting always made Vegeta feel a little woozy, so he didn't like to have to go with Goku anywhere by that method very often. It would unsettle anyone's stomach to be transformed into a light particle and zapped over millions of miles in the space of a second. It didn't seem to bother Goku much, but then again, Goku had a stomach of steel.   


But when he opened his eyes to look around them at where they were, all thoughts of nausea left him.   


They were on Kaio-shin-Kai.   


He hadn't been to the Supreme Kai's planet since the fight with Majin Buu, and he hadn't expected to see the place ever again. Even more surprising, there were more people there than he expected.   


First, there were all four Kai's, not just their King Kai. And Kaio-bit, the being that had resulted when Kaio-shin and Kibito fused with the earrings. Goku still referred to the guy as Shin.   


Dende was there, now a tall adult namek. His usual look of happiness was gone, however. Now, he looked scared, and worried. The old Kaio-shin was sitting against a tree, reading a magazine. He was the only one of the gods that didn't appear worried.   


"So, you finally got my message?" King Kai walked over and looked up at Goku and Vegeta (who he had never even met in person), his usual playful grin not even showing a ghost of itself.   


Goku nodded. "But we were actually on our way here, anyway. I had something to ask you."   


King Kai waved a hand in the air. "It can wait. There are things we all have to discuss."   


Goku nodded, and the two saiyajin sat down on the grass. Everyone else was already seated except for King Kai, who soon followed suit and sat down on a cushion. He looked at Kaio-bit and nodded. The other deity nodded back and began to speak in a soft, pleasant voice. Goku paused to wonder why he didn't speak in a double voice like all other fusion-beings, but didn't dwell on it.   


"As you know, the Golden Moon will soon make it's reappearance. One earth."   


They nodded.   


"But I don't believe that you really know what this means." he continued. "There are worse things in hell than people like Frieza. There are lower hells that are really reserved for immortal beings. Sort of like a dead zone with land, and punishment centers."   


"We aren't foolish enough to hope that these levels of hell won't be opened as well as the rest. They will be. And there are still things there with enough will and power left to take advantage of the chance."   


"We don't know when exactly the Golden Moon will appear. Almost every manuscript on it has a different date. The ones in Dende's library say that there cold be almost a month until it happens. The ones in Enma-sama's library say that there could be only a day. A few others give dates in between, and some don't even say. But the point is, we don't have any exact date. So we'll have to be on the lookout at all times."   


Goku was looking at Kaio-bit in a way that indicated he was soaking everything up like a sponge. His eyes were narrowed, his mouth set into a small line. He nodded slightly every once in a while, as if he was making guesses and having them confirmed. Vegeta wore his normal scowl, but it was clear that he was listening as well.   


"The whole thing will happen in three stages, all about six hours apart. First, the sky will go completely black, probably from clouds, and probably in the middle of the day. Six hours later, the doorway into hell will open in the sky. We don't know where exactly, but we do have a few very good guesses that should give you some clues as to where to watch."   


"And six hours after that, the Golden Moon itself will appear."   


Suddenly he smiled. "Now comes the good news. All you have to do is destroy it, and the doorway into hell will be destroyed as well. Then you just have to kill whatever already got out and you'll be home free. Destroying the thing shouldn't be any harder than destroying a planet. Choutzu could do it."   


"Oh, yes." Vegeta said with a note of sarcasm in his voice. "That's so very simple. But the problem is, we don't know how powerful any of the things that come out will be. So killing them may be a bit difficult."   


King Kai cut in. "We know that, Vegeta. But I really don't think you'll have a whole lot of trouble if you attack as soon as they get out. And you only have to work at it for six hours before you can destroy the Golden Moon."   


Vegeta rolled his eyes and said nothing.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku looked at King Kai. "Do you think I could ask you my question now?"   


The blue god nodded his head.   


Goku took a deep breath. "Someone quite strong seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He attacked Vegeta. And he was looking for me."   


King Kai raised his eyebrows. "And?"   


"He knew the Kaio-ken. We were wondering if he could have been a student you took on recently."   


King Kai surprised them by smiling for the first time since they had gotten there. "Not recently, Goku. But I do know who you're talking about. Red hair, about five foot eight, small but pretty muscular? Probably wearing armor like Frieza's empire used to use?"   


Vegeta had been staring off into the distance, but now he turned toward the Kai and leaned forward.   


"You know who it is, then?"   


King Kai nodded and laughed. "I should have sent you a message really, but there was no time. I told him to go to earth."   


Goku raised an eyebrow and kept looking at King Kai, indicating that he wanted more information.   


"He was a very good student, probably my best next to you, Goku. And just yesterday he came to me saying that he needed help. So naturally I told him 'I know a great guy who loves to help people. His name's Son Goku.'"   


Vegeta growled in the back of his throat, an old sign that anyone who knew him could tell you meant he was annoyed.   


"We have established the fact that you told him to look for Kakarott. But who is he, and why is he bothering us?!"   


The Kai just laughed a little more, not bothered by Vegeta's rudeness. "I told you, he was my student. He didn't say why he needed help, but it might be good to ask instead of fighting with him. It probably has something to do with the Golden Moon."   


Goku held up his hand. "Wait just a second. Vegeta said the kid looked like he was fifteen at the most. That means that you must have taught him after me, right?"   


King Kai shook his head. "The only people I took on a students after you were Tien, Yamucha, and Choutzu. I taught him a long time ago. But you were right about his age, Vegeta. He was fifteen years old when he stopped."   


Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "Stopped what?"   


"Stopped growing. I guess that was close to three thousand years ago, now."   


The two saiyajin's eyes grew wide.   


"What are you saying? What the hell has a life span of that long?!" Vegeta almost screamed.   


King Kai now didn't just chuckle, he burst out laughing. "Haven't you guessed it yet?"   
  
  
  
  


The boy licked his lips absently, his tongue running over two long, razor canines.   


"I'm hungry." he sighed simply. "And there's nothing here. Not even a damned animal." he made a slight face.   


A sigh escaped his pursed lips as he put his head back into his hands. "I suppose it wouldn't be good to go and start killing people, even evil ones, until I get to know these guys well enough that they won't attack me."   


He sighed again. It was going to be a long wait.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris' face was marked by an expression he hadn't worn in ages.   


He was smiling.   


"It will be fun to fight again. Maybe one of these riffraff will be powerful enough to give me a decent challenge."   


He was standing in front of a large glass tube, which was opened at the front. Now he stepped into it, and the glass automatically closed over him.   


"Computer, teleport me to earth." he said, the smile never leaving his face. Instantly his body started to de-materialize into light. In an instant, he was gone.   


The peaceful sound of a waterfall was the only noise that broke the quiet peace of the forest. It rumbled on loudly, but it was a quiet kind of noise, a peaceful noise. That was why Piccolo liked it.   


He floated in his usual position, legs and arms crossed, eyes closed. He was in a deep meditation, a state that only the most dedicated and skilled person could reach. In it, he was more aware of the earth and everything on it than any of the other Z warriors. It was like a huge web, with him in the center and information from the whole world traveling down the strands.   


He had noticed the vampire boy's ki long ago, and determined that he was not hostile in any way. He had almost intervened when Vegeta and the boy had fought, but thought better of it. Things would work themselves out. They usually did.   


It had all settled own now, as he knew it would. Goku and Vegeta had just teleported off planet for some reason, but that didn't mean something bad was up. They probably just had to talk to King Kai, or something.   


He had just begun to drift again when he sensed it.   


A ki, very like the strange boy's, but different in two major ways.   


It was much stronger, and it was very hostile.   
  
  
  
  


Gohan, Krillin, and Juuhachi-gou had just landed on the front lawn of Kame island when the hostile vampire's ki burst to life, as if it had just appeared out of nowhere. As a matter of fact, it had just been teleported there. But there was no way for them to know that.   


They all stopped dead in their tracks toward the door of the house, their eyes growing wide and frightened in synch.   


"What..." Gohan tried, and had to clear his throat. "What the hell is that?"   


Neither of the other two could answer. The sheer enormity of the ki was staggering. It dwarfed the power they had all felt from Vegeta earlier, easily. And the ki was coming in slow waves, indicating that the owner was at rest, rather than powered up.   


Gohan swallowed again, trying to clear the dryness in his throat.   


"I...." he managed. "I don't think that feels friendly."   


The other two shook their heads.   


Suddenly, the fright seemed to leave Gohan's face. In all actuality, it was more tucked away. He would have time to be afraid later. The look on his face now was one of solid determination.   


"Come on, you guys. We've got to find out who that is." he said, and turned abruptly one hundred eighty degrees.   


The other two at first didn't move much at all, but then Krillin's face changed much like Gohan's had, and Juuhachi-gou's followed. They were all veteran warriors, and they knew that fear weakened you. Made you vulnerable. In a situation such as this, even blind rage could be safer. And the flat determination that they all consciously made replace the fear in their minds was better by a mile.   


Without another word exchanged, they took off together back the way they came toward the source of the ki they had felt.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


At Korin's tower, the faces of three teenagers all paled at once. And Korin's mouth fell open, his staff falling to the floor as he and the three boys rushed to the railing, as if they could sense ki better that way.   


Trunks was the first to speak, and he perfectly imitated Gohan.   


"What..." he gulped. "What is that?"   


Korin's mouth closed with a snap. He seemed to regain his calm instantly. He left the boys gawking at the railing, and went back to the center of the platform, picking up his staff.   


"I was sure he was dead." Korin muttered to himself, now seeming more confused than afraid. "I was sure of it. So how can this be..."   


Goten's head snapped around as he looked at Korin. He apparently was the only one paying attention to the cat/god's talk.   


"What did you say, master Korin?"   


Korin looked at Goten for a moment before he answered. "I said I was sure he was dead."   


"Who?"   


Korin waved his staff in the air angrily. "Who do you think? That enormous power you're all sensing!"   


Goten was about to say something else, but Uubu's voice interjected.   


"Gohan and Krillin are headed toward it!" he said. "If they're headed that way, Juuhachi-gou is with them as well. We have to go help them!"   


Trunks nodded, and Goten seemed on the verge of going to them and all taking off when Korin's voice stopped them.   


"Stop. Gohan and the other two are already as good as dead. And if you go to them, you will be too."   


All three looked at him with a mixture of fear and confusion on their faces, frozen in mid stride.   


"The thing they're going after can't be beaten by any of you. He would kill you all in seconds. If anyone has a chance, it's Goku. But none of you can go and sacrifice yourselves to that monster! I forbid it!"   


Trunks was about to say something about their duty to help, and then leave, when there was a sound that was like a cross between a tree branch cracking and metal clashing. The unmistakable sound of an aura disengaging.   


"I forbid it as well."   


Trunks turned to his left and saw just who he had sensed and known would be there. Piccolo.   


"I won't let you go and get yourself killed. You're still a child."   


Trunks' face twisted in anger, both at being told what to do, and at being called a child.   


"You can't stop me." he said in a low voice.   


Piccolo's eyes narrowed. "You're wrong about that, Trunks."   


"None of you are going anywhere." a stern female voice came from the door of the small closed room at the back of the platform. Unmistakably ChiChi.   


"None of you. And I know your mother would say the same thing, Trunks." she said sternly, crossing her arms in front of her. She was standing in the doorway, glaring at them all, as if daring them to contradict her. They didn't.   


"Good. I'm glad to see you've got some sense." she said with a smile.   


Piccolo shook his head. "I said they weren't going. I have an obligation to fill."   


All of their heads turned back from ChiChi to Piccolo.   


"Gohan's out there, going toward almost certain death, if what I feel is right. It's my duty to protect him."   


Before anyone could say a word to stop him, the cape and turban had fallen, leaving a couple good sized craters in the stone floor, and Piccolo had taken flight in a blaze of ki.   


Trunk's eyes narrowed into slits, and his hair flashed gold.   


"If he goes, I go." he said, and prepared to take off.   


But a smart chop to the back of the neck suddenly cut off the nerve pathways that connected the brain to the rest of the body, right at the back of his neck. Standard way to render someone unconscious.   


Trunks fell forward and his hair immediately fell back down, the gold fading back to lavender. Standing behind him with a raised arm and a guilty look on his face was Uubu.   


"Piccolo's right." he said, tuning apologetically to Goten, even though the demi-saiyajin had said nothing. "If we go to fight.... whatever that is, we'll get killed. I know, I feel it too. Whatever those four are about to fight... it isn't human."   


None of the listeners misunderstood. Uubu didn't mean anything about the species homo sapien. He meant normal, mortal, of this world. Whatever was about to fight Gohan, Krillin, Juuhachi-gou, and Piccolo, it was dangerous.   
  
  
  
  


"Piccolo is coming towards us." Gohan said shortly.   


Neither Krillin or Juuhachi-gou responded, but Gohan knew that they had heard him. But speech had a funny effect on the bold front they used to cover their fear. It made it seem thinner, even made it disappear. That was why he had limited his comment to those five words. The only emotion that could replace that front of bravery and not let the fear back in was the thought of going honorably toward death. But if you still had some hope of living, that didn't work too well.   


Before more than a few seconds had passed, Piccolo was visible to their left. Before even five more seconds had passed, he was pulling even with Gohan.   


They didn't exchange any words. There was no need. The two were so in tune with each other that words were fairly pointless in this sort of situation.   


The powerful ki was getting very close. In fact, they were almost on top of it.   


But they still were quite surprised when Osiris simply appeared in their path.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


The ancient being, the vampire Osiris, that the four warriors were racing toward was actually just sitting on a log in the middle of a sort of oasis. He was looking around him and calmly planning on how to best destroy anyone who opposed him on this planet.   


He knew that they were headed for him. A few of the most powerful here. The high number of powerful warriors on this planet puzzled him quite a bit. On most of the planets he plundered, it was a rare occasion to find even one warrior half as strong as the weakest of these. But here...   


Not that it mattered. He could kill them all easily enough.   


He looked up from the tree he had been staring vacantly at while thinking, an irritated look on his face. They were coming on pretty fast. In fact, he would be able to see them in about ten seconds.   


He stood and dusted the dirt off of his plain black clothes, letting the metal tube bang against his leg. That weapon, the piercing white ki sword, was a last resort. To him, ki was more of a backup, something to be used when all else failed. He preferred to use his supernatural abilities instead.   


Ah, now he could see them. Coming on fast. He closed his eyes and grinned slowly, summoning his power, and without using ki, simply calling upon his vampiric gifts and placing himself directly in front of them in a rush of wind.   


He opened his eyes. The looks on their faces were priceless. He loved it.   


"Hello." he said in his purring, french-sounding accent. "I am the vampire Osiris. I would like to let you all know now, before we experience any misunderstandings, that I am going to kill you all."   



	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five:

Gohan's fighting instincts had grown a little slow, but he still was far faster than any of the Z warriors except for Goku or Vegeta. He did the first thing his instincts told him to do. He swung.   


The punch connected solidly with Osiris' face, right on the bridge of the nose, and Gohan heard the momentarily satisfying crunch of breaking bone.   


Then a wave of pain hit him, and he realized something. He had just absolutely demolished most of the bones in his left hand.   


He pulled his hand back slowly, not crying out, not even letting the pain show on his face. But he was in quite a bit of pain, mostly because he had not done the one thing he should have done: engaged his mystic form before he had attacked. He cupped his injured left hand in his good one, again moving in exaggerated slowness, blocking out the pain.   


"My, that was very poor." Osiris laughed. He simply floated where he had been, his arms crossed in front of him, a playful smile pasted on his face. "Please tell me you're not the best this planet has to offer."   


There was a flash of white light as Krillin and Piccolo's aura's burst to life around them, and a slight wind as Juuhachi-gou powered up.   


"Going to attack me?" Osiris raised an eyebrow over one icy cold eye. "Don't bother. It's a waste of time and energy."   


Obviously, he didn't expect any of them to listen to him, and he wasn't disappointed. He had to move very quickly as two feet from a namek and a cyborg, and a foot from a human, all came flying at him.   


They hit nothing but air.   


Piccolo's eyes grew wide. "What the.... I didn't even see him move!"   


He felt a small tap on his shoulder.   


Piccolo turned his head slowly, knowing he was going to see a marble face and eyes of ice smiling behind him. And he was right.   


"Hello." Osiris said with a smile, and planted a fist into Piccolo's lower spine.   


The reaction was instant. The namek's eyes grew wide, and his mouth flew open, a few drops of blood spraying out. A bulge appeared in his stomach, showing where Osiris was still pushing his hand through.   


"Help..." Piccolo's voice gurgled out.   


Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and before he could turn to see what it was, Osiris felt Gohan's fist, with his whole mystic power behind it, slam into the side of his head and send him flying.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goten and Uubu were staring with wide eyes across the sky, not actually looking at anything, but feeling the battle with their minds. Trunks had come to only a minute after Uubu had rendered him unconscious, and he was now sitting with his back to a pillar, sulkily monitoring the battle.   


"Something's wrong." Uubu said in a low voice. "With whoever they're fighting.... something's really not right. I can sense the immense power in him.... but he doesn't even seem to be using ki at all!"   


Goten nodded. "It's like..." he stopped, not really knowing what he had been about to say.   


"Gohan's hurt." he said after a pause. "I think he hurt his hand."   


Uubu nodded. There wasn't really any way to reply.   


"He... he needs a senzu bean."   


Uubu nodded again.   


Suddenly Trunks' head jerked up. "Hey, Goten!"   


The younger demi-saiyajin turned and looked at his friend.   


"I have an idea!" Trunks said excitedly. He had jumped to his feet, and now he ran forward and grabbed Goten by the shoulders. "We may not be strong enough by ourselves to fight whoever it is that Gohan and the others are fighting, but maybe..."   


Suddenly Goten's eyes lit up. "...together. Trunks, you're a genius!"   


Uubu was looking at the two boys in confusion. "What are you to talking about?"   


Goten laughed out loud. "We're talking about fusion! I may not be strong enough, and Trunks may not be strong enough, but I bet Gotenks is!"   


The same realization that had dawned in Goten's eyes now dawned in Uubu's. "Goku-sensei told me about that! You mean you can still do it?"   


They nodded.   


"If we can just get the dance right, that is." Trunks said. "We haven't really done it in a long time."   


Goten chuckled. "We can do it. You'll see."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan saw the look of surprise on Osiris' face as his face contorted from the impact of a fist. It was only for a split second before the vampire was sent flying, but it was still extremely satisfying.   


Osiris brought himself to a stop about twenty feet away, and he simply stopped there and glared at Gohan, the humor gone from his face in an instant, his smile curled into a snarl. He didn't really even move, just sat there and glared, looking for all the world like a marble statue.   


"Gohan." Piccolo said gruffly, and he coughed up a bit of blood. "Run... run to Korin's and get a senzu bean for your hand. We'll stall him until you get back."   


Gohan shook his head violently back and forth. His injured hand was held protectively against his stomach. "No way I'm running off and leaving you guys to hold the fort, Piccolo-san. Hurt or not."   


Suddenly Krillin's voice rang out. "Look out!!"   


Gohan had taken his gaze of Osiris to look at Piccolo, and now instantly regretted it. When he turned his head the small degree it needed, he just had time to catch a glimpse of the vampire's snarl before a fist slammed into his stomach.   


The pain was unbearable, filling the whole world. He had felt the muffled crunch as at least a couple of his ribs gave way.   


Osiris bent his head forward until it was next to Gohan's ear, less than an inch away from his skin. The snarl of rage was gone and the smile was back, but it wasn't the humorous smile anymore. It was filled with rage, his lips curled back to reveal perfect white teeth, framed by razor sharp canines.   


"You hit me." he whispered in Gohan's ear, and the words seemed to cut through the pain and move in past it. "You hit me from a blind side, with no warning." he snarled, pulling his hand back and slamming it forward again. There was a muffled sound like a bamboo pole snapping as more of Gohan's ribs broke.   


He pulled his fist back again, but before it could slam forward, Krillin and Juuhachi-gou intercepted him.   


"Monster!!" Krillin yelled out, and Osiris had to pull his punching hand up to block the kick the human had aimed for his head.   


"Hiya!!" Juuhachi-gou's voice rang, and Osiris wasn't fast enough in turning to block as an elbow hit the spot in the back of the head where the spine connected to the skull. He let out a cry of pain, the first in perhaps centuries, as Gohan fell from his grasp and he spun to face his new opponents.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku's head had been bowed in thought, but now it snapped up in alarm.   


"Vegeta!" he yelled out, and the saiyajin next to him snapped up as well.   


"What is it, Kakarott?"   


"Do you feel that? Something's happening on earth!"   


Vegeta's eyes widened. "What's happening?"   


Goku shook his head, frustrated. "I don't know. There's some kind of interference in the ki signals from earth. But I'm pretty sure there's a battle going on."   


Vegeta jumped to his feet. "Well, if there's a battle, take us home!"   


Goku nodded and stood up. "I'm sorry, Kai's, but we have to go."   


He put a hand on Vegeta's shoulder, and with the other he put two fingers to his forehead and concentrated.   


Nothing happened. Goku's brow wrinkled.   


Still nothing happened.   


"What's wrong now, Kakarott!?" Vegeta almost screamed. "We have to get back, so quit fooling around!"   


Goku slowly lowered his hands. "I can't."   


Vegeta's eyes widened. "What do you mean, 'can't'?"   


Goku shrugged. "Whatever is interfering in sensing ki, it's pretty bad. I can't get a fix on anyone on earth."   


Vegeta's eyes widened even more. "Explain."   


Goku sighed. "To use the instant transmission, I have to focus on a ki in the place I want to go. So, if I can't sense ki, I can't teleport."   


"Does that mean..."   


Goku nodded. "Until whatever is interfering clears up, we're stuck here."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Krillin flew at Osiris as fast as he could, hoping against hope that he could catch the monster off guard, that maybe he would be lucky enough. He was not.   


Before he got within five feet, the vampire had flown up to meet him, and had an icy cold hand around his throat. In the flash of a second, he had gone from being on the offensive to gasping desperately for air.   


"Stop it!!" Juuhachi-gou screamed, and charged.   


A hand that she never saw slammed up, hitting her face like a brick and knocking her back. Her eyes shut involuntarily as she flew, and when she finally came to a stop, she was almost twenty yards away.   


She opened her eyes, trying to see past the pain. She flew forward and was about to attack again, when Osiris' gaze pin-wheeled from her husband and met hers.   


She froze in the air, not able to move, and not even thinking about it. Because two things had suddenly taken up equal halves of her mind, obscuring all rational thought. There was an absolutely mind numbing pain, making her whole body feel like it was burning from the inside out.   


And there was a sight.   


The icy blue of the vampire's eyes had suddenly changed. Now it looked like the flickering blue of a very hot fire. And the irises were spinning.   


This and the horrible screaming pain froze her in place for the space of about two seconds. Not long enough for Gohan and Piccolo to reach her, which they were trying to do, but most certainly long enough for what was causing the pain to complete it's quick work.   


The powerful force that wasn't ki flashed at Juuhachi-gou fro Osiris' eyes, and for a second they flashed bright, two points of brilliance in the stark white face.   


Then Juuhachi-gou exploded.   
  
  


Vegeta paced back and forth across the smooth grass of Kaio-shin-Kai, almost wearing a trench in the ground. He had a look of mixed anger and helplessness on his face.   


Suddenly he turned to Goku and yelled, "Keep trying, Kakarott!!"   


Goku let out a harsh sigh. "I have been Vegeta. I'm trying now, and I was trying the last time you yelled at me, and the time before that. It's just not working."   


Vegeta scoffed angrily and resumed his pacing.   


Kaio-bit, King Kai, Dende, and the old Kaio-shin were all still there, but the other three Kais had gone already. Dende and King Kai were looking at the two saiyajin with extreme worry, and Kaio-bit was trying to sense anything on earth along with Goku. Old Kaio-shin was still reading a comic book.   


"It's no good, Goku." Kaio-bit said. "I'm afraid that the Golden Moon coming is interfering with the earth somehow. The air is changing a bit, or something, in preparation. Perhaps there is another way?" he looked at Goku questioningly.   


Goku sighed and shook his head, not to indicate the negative, but because he really didn't know.   


"Well, we could always wait for the gateway into hell to appear, and then dive down into hell and get out that way." Dende said.   


Goku and Vegeta both froze and looked at him.   


"You mean... wait until this gateway appears, then jump down into hell, and come to earth through the gateway?" Vegeta said slowly.   


Old Kaio-shin rolled his eyes. "That is what the boy said."   


Vegeta ignored the remark. "I suppose that would work. But what do we do in the meantime?"   


Dende shrugged. "I guess we wait. If the ki on earth is being interfered with, it probably means that it won't be long."   


Vegeta said nothing, just stared for a minute. Then he turned away and resumed pacing.   


Goku heaved a deep sigh. "I guess that's the only choice we have."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris smiled as he felt the warrior in his grasp suddenly go tense. Pieces of the woman he had just blown up were falling from the sky, and he watched them, wanting to laugh.   


"YOU BASTARD!!" Krillin screamed, and wrenched himself from the vampire's grasp with more power than he even knew he had.   


Osiris turned his head in surprise. The little man's ki had just almost doubled. But he had only turned halfway when Piccolo, Gohan, and Krillin all began to attack him at once.   


He was surprised that they still had the nerve, but even more surprised that they had the strength. He wasn't having a whole lot of trouble blocking the blows, especially since Gohan's hand was broken, but they were hurting his arms when they hit.   


"I may have to use ki after all." he muttered to himself. "But let's hope it doesn't come to that. I still have more power."   


He suddenly spun at full speed, so fast that Piccolo and Krillin didn't even see him move, one minute he was blocking, the next.... and Gohan just saw a blur of light.   


He was holding Piccolo by the arm.   


"I have to hand it to you all, you're not bad." he said, and before any of them had an opening to attack, he spun as quickly as he had grabbed, bringing his hand around in a chop.   


Piccolo felt a heat sink into his shoulder, so fast that it wasn't even pain, really.   


Then Osiris was six feet away, holing his arm, and purple blood was gushing from his shoulder.   


He cried out just a bit, more of a slight grunt of pain, really. He was used to pain, and he had lost limbs many times. But if he was going to be of any use in a fight, he was going to have to take a couple minutes to gather the energy to regenerate.   


Gohan was the first to react. Broken ribs, broken hand, and all, he flew as fast as he could at Osiris, swinging his good hand in a punch that had most of his remaining power behind it.   


So he was a little surprised when he hit nothing but air.   


He immediately glanced to the right and left, the first and easiest directions to dodge in. Nothing. He looked up above him. Still nothing.   


"Gohan! Behind you!" Krillin screamed.   


He began to turn, feeling as if he was in slow motion. There was only one thought passing through his brain. He had taken so much of a beating already from those few hits; if Osiris was able to land one good blow, he would be pretty well done in.   


He was about half way around when a booted foot connected solidly with the small of his back.   


His body didn't move at first, everything seemed to be moving much too slowly, like a movie. Blood flew out of his mouth, and his body began to bend at the waist backward. He let out a weak gasp, al that he could manage of the scream that was going on in his brain.   


Then his body began to bend forward, and he flew. At least fifty feet or more before he lost the momentum and began to fall, all the way down. He couldn't stop himself, the pain was too great. Except for below his waist. He couldn't feel anything below his waist.   


Piccolo and Krillin launched up, trying to do something, anything, that would harm Osiris. But Piccolo was fighting with one arm, and Krillin simply wasn't quite strong enough. Two quick blows that they couldn't see but felt just fine sent them both flying back.   


Krillin managed to stay in the air. Piccolo was falling, and landed somewhere among the rocks and sand below.   


Osiris chuckled. "I guess it's just you and me, no?" he laughed as he looked at Krillin.   


The small warrior was almost out of hope. There was no way he could beat this monster. He had beaten Gohan and Piccolo like nothing. And Juuhachi-gou...   


At that thought, he felt lava enter his brain. Before, he had had to mask his fear. Now it vanished, rage consumed him, and he knew one thing. He was going to die, and die with honor. He wouldn't just stand by and be afraid while Juu's killer laughed at him.   


"Shine!!!" he screamed, and flew as fast as he could.   


He actually took Osiris off guard. The vampire had assumed that Krillin had no fight left in him. Because of this, the former monk's fist connected solidly with Osiris' jaw.   


And somehow, he was actually in pain!!   


He twisted his head back around, fixing his eyes on Krillin. For a moment, he considered just blowing the little man to bits with his mind, like he had the other. But that was too easy, and he wanted to get a few good blows in. The squirt had actually had the nerve to hit him!   


Krillin swung a kick, trying to hit Osiris' ribs. This time, the vampire blocked it with relative ease.   


"Please, don't tire yourself." he laughed as Krillin threw another barrage of punches and kicks. He blocked every one. "I'm going to destroy you, anyway. Don't you understand? Your little woman is gone, and you will join her."   


In the midst of desperately trying to land a good blow, Krillin sensed something. Actually, two somethings. Both headed this way. But one was much closer, almost on top of them.   


Suddenly, Krillin saw a flash that looked like a red comet blast out of the sky to the east.   


"What the hell..." Osiris began, before it plowed into him.   


It drove Osiris quickly out of Krillin's way, and in a straight line to the ground. As they hit, there was a huge boom, and a huge cloud of dust went up, obscuring everything. Krillin shielded his eyes.   


When it cleared, there was a huge crater below him. It looked almost half a mile wide, maybe even more. But there was nothing coming from the bottom. No battle. But that didn't make any sense, because he could still sense Osiris and whoever had hit him, both perfectly fine.   


He dove down to see what the hell had just happened.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


When he got to the ground, he was greeted by a decidedly strange sight.   


Osiris was standing at the bottom of the crater, a very angry look on his face, but also puzzlement. Across from him, with the same look, was the boy that had been fighting Vegeta earlier.   


They simply stared at each other, not moving or talking.   


Krillin landed a good way up the crater, about fifty yards away from the two.   


Finally, after almost a full minute of simply staring, Osiris spoke.   


"What in the hell are you doing here?" he said, his voice thick with anger. Not hated, not that at all, but a sort of confusion.   


The vampire with the red hair smirked a bit. "I suppose I could ask you the same question. But that would be pretty pointless, since I can pretty well guess why you're here."   


Osiris looked even more angry. "And why is that?"   


The other vampire actually laughed. "Why, the Golden Moon, of course! Why else would you choose this planet, of all out of the way places, to terrorize?" the vampire stopped his laughter and merely smiled, the anger gone. "You lust too much after power. You always have." he added almost as an afterthought.   


Osiris growled. "I don't have time for your lectures on ethics, Arda. I have," he glanced in Krillin's direction and sneered. "Unfinished business to accomplish."   


Arda shook his head slowly, as if he were disappointed in a child. "So I see. But why? We have other things to do, much more urgent and important things."   


Osiris raised an eyebrow, but the anger was still on his face. "Like what?"   


Arda shook his head again. "Trust me for now. But we have to take care of these people you've just almost killed. And hopefully the one you did kill can be brought back."   


Osiris' scowl deepened. "Brought back? You mean that you're going to let these pathetic mortals live, and take the power of the Golden Moon?" he snarled and clenched his fist in anger. "Let them take it!?" he yelled again.   


Arda's eyes narrowed. "Osiris, you don't need a power like that. Especially not at the expense of these mortal's lives. Why did you have to do all this?"   


"Shut up!" Osiris yelled, absolute rage boiling in his eyes. "Mortals are stupid, worthless creatures! Now get out of my way, or I'll kill you as well!!"   


Arda's eyes went wide with surprise, then he spun and yelled to Krillin. "You! Go find your friends, and do whatever you can!"   


Then he turned back toward the other vampire. "I'll take care of you."   


Krillin didn't wait for a response. He flew, trying as hard as he could to pinpoint the faint kis of Gohan and Piccolo.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goten had the bag of senzu beans tucked safely into his pouch and was about to take off with Uubu and Trunks when Korin suddenly held up a paw and called out, "Wait!"   


The three boys spun around and looked questioningly at the cat/god. Korin simply stood, sensing ki like he was testing the wind. Something vary peculiar was happening, and it was getting harder and harder to sense ki clearly.   


"I don't think you boys will have to fight right now after all." he said at last. "But you need to take those senzu beans to Gohan and Piccolo quickly!"   


Goten nodded slowly. He wasn't sure why Korin was so sure that they wouldn't have to fight, but he really didn't want to argue. He was more concerned about his brother and Piccolo at the present moment. They had all been able to sense the two warriors go down.   


"Where are they?" Uubu asked. "Are they all still in the same place? I can't sense hardly any ki. It's like we're being blocked, or something."   


Korin nodded. "They're in roughly the same place. And you'll be able to sense ki better when you get closer. It's the Golden Moon. It won't be long now before the darkness starts."   


This was true. Even now they could see what looked like dark storm clouds far away on the horizon.   


"We'll be back soon." Trunks said, and as if that was their cue, all the boys took off.   


Korin said nothing, just stood and watched. The dark clouds were far away now, but they were moving closer. He thought that they had perhaps an hour, if even that.   



	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

"Osiris, we don't have time for this." Arda said, almost pleadingly. "Can't you see the clouds? That's the darkness coming. We have just a little over seven hours, tops, before the gateway into hell opens up."   


Osiris' expression didn't change. "I suppose those pathetic mortals will praise you for saving them from me now. You will be a 'good guy'. Well, they don't know who or what we are. You are a monster, Arda, just like me. And no matter how many of those pathetic innocents you save, you will always be one."   


Arda only shrugged. "What makes you think so, Osiris? And what difference does it make? You can talk all you like, but I'm more powerful than you. And those earthlings, those mortals, I think that if they were to fight you again, they would win."   


Now the anger vanished in a flash and Osiris threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, that's good. Let me guess, they're special, they have power? I've never lost a battle, especially not one with a mortal."   


"Well, you will. And soon." Arda said. "That man, Son Goku's child, he's got more untapped power than you can even comprehend. If you weren't so impossibly thick, maybe you would have sensed that."   


The look of rage quickly returned to the vampire's face. "Just SHUT UP!!!" Osiris screamed, and flew forward.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Krillin searched frantically through the barren landscape below, searching for any sign of life. Gohan and Piccolo were still alive, but their ki signatures were very faint. So faint that it was impossible to pinpoint the exact location. But something else seemed to be interfering.   


Usually, sensing ki was like looking at the sun with your eyes closed. You couldn't see it really, but you would have to be blind to miss it. But something was wrong. It was like something else was dimming the signal, and now it was like trying to see the sun with a blanket over your head. possible, but not likely.   


"I was sure..." he muttered as he landed on a rock where he was sure he had sensed something, only to find nothing. It was like that. He would land where he thought he sensed something, and then he would sense it somewhere else.   


He floated slowly into the air again. He had been searching for at least fifteen minutes, moving in smaller and smaller circles. He knew he hadn't passed anything up, he had been really careful. So he must be getting closer.   


He was starting to get lost in his thoughts when he saw something. It was an arm, sticking out from under a rock.   


"Oh, jeez!" he muttered and landed next to it. It was unmistakably Gohan's; the orange cloth of the gi was still visible coming from under the rock.   


"Hold on, buddy. I'll get you out." he said. Then he looked up at the boulder. It was huge, at least twenty feet high and twice that wide. He could blow it up, but that would hurt Gohan. So it looked like he was stuck moving it.   


"Man, this just really sucks." he muttered, kneeling down and sliding his fingers under the rock. He strained upward.   


"Come on..." he muttered, and the rock began to lift. He got it six inches.... a foot.... two feet.   


He let his aura blaze around him, and floated up off the ground. Finally the rock overbalanced, and tumbled over on it's top, causing the ground to shake.   


"Whew..." Krillin wiped his brow and floated down next to Gohan.   


"Hey... Gohan" he muttered.   


"Krillin? That..." Gohan's quiet voice broke off into a series of harsh coughs.   


"Yeah, it's me. Just hang in there, Gohan, I'll help you out."   


He reached down to grab Gohan by the shoulders, but then pulled back. Everything appeared to be broken. How he had managed to talk was completely beyond Krillin's comprehension.   


"Gohan, I can move you, but it's going to hurt, really bad." Krillin said softly.   


"Don't worry...." he coughed again, "bout me. Piccolo..." he trailed off.   


"Krillin!!"   


Krillin snapped his face skyward, and was greeted by the most relieving sight of his life: Goten, Trunks, and Uubu, flying towards him. Clearly visible on Goten's belt was a bag of senzu beans.   


The human warrior's face broke into a huge grin. "Hey!! Come on, hurry! Gohan's hurt really bad!"   


The three young warriors landed next to Krillin, and all immediately froze at the sight of Gohan.   


"Oh, man." Goten said. Gohan's legs and back were all twisted at a very bad angle. His head was partially crushed, and his entire body except for his one exposed arm seemed broken and bruised.   


"He'll need more than one bean, I think." Uubu said a little uneasily.   


"Just hurry!" Krillin said, and Goten's paralysis broke. He rushed over to Gohan, pulling the bag of beans from his belt.   


"Here, Gohan." he said as he shook three of the beans from his pouch. "Can you chew?"   


"Don't know." Gohan said shortly.   


Goten nodded and crushed the beans in his hands, making then into a powder. He gently pushed Gohan's mouth open and sifted it in, letting it dissolve and move down his throat.   


At first there appeared to be no change. Then very slowly, the misshapen dent in Gohan's head pushed back out, leaving no evidence that it had ever been there.   


Just as slowly, his legs and back began to realign themselves. They pushed over, the awkward angles disappearing, giving way to the straight line of Gohan's muscled leg, and his back went back to just the right curve.   


Before five minutes had passed, the healing had stopped and Gohan could sit up.   


"I think... I'm not completely healed." he winced and rubbed his neck. It was true. There were huge bruises covering his arms and legs, and his face had a few good ones as well.   


"I've only got two more beans." Goten said apologetically. "This year's crop wasn't quite ripe yet, and this was all Korin had."   


Gohan nodded. "Well, we need to save the last two, and go find..."   


"Me?" the unmistakable gruff voice of the namek came from behind them. They all whirled and saw Piccolo standing behind them, wearing a new untouched gi, cape, and turban. His arm was back, still looking new and cleaner, not covered with the thin layer of desert dust that they were all covered with by now.   


"Piccolo-san!" Gohan said happily, and got shakily to his feet.   


"Sit down, kid. You need those beans a little more than I do."   


Gohan obedient sat down, and swallowed the senzu bean that Goten handed him. The bruises immediately faded to almost nothing, and he climbed to his feet.   


"So... what happened to Osiris?" Piccolo asked.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Arda dodged out of the way of the punch that was aimed at his face, but not quite fast enough. It caught him in the jaw and sent him reeling to one side.   


"Kaio-ken!" he yelled out, and the red aura burst to life around him, pushing Osiris back a couple steps.   


"So, you want to play around with ki?" Osiris smirked.   


Arda didn't answer. He spun faster than Osiris could see clearly and sent his foot into the other vampire's jaw. Osiris' smirk vanished, and he flew back through the air. He didn't get far before Arda appeared behind him.   


"HAA!!" he screamed, shooting a blast straight into Osiris' back. White light burst out and sent him flying on his face in the dirt, digging a huge furrow in the ground as he slid.   


"No, I don't want to play with ki." Arda snarled, and blurred out of sight again. He appeared above Osiris, and dove straight down, slamming a foot into the center of Osiris' back, causing the other vampire to let out an involuntary scream of pain.   


"Unless you call death playing." he snarled.   


He pulled himself up and landed a few paces away. Osiris got up quickly enough after a couple seconds.   


"That was a cheap shot." he growled. "If you power up, I power up."   


Without waiting for an answer, he balled his fists up, his muscles tensing and bulging.   


Before any aura was visible, the ground began to shake. Small snaps of blue ki lightning began to whip around Osiris' body, and the rocks and debris left the soil and floated in the air on a wave of ki.   


The ground shook more violently, and Osiris began to grunt in frustration, because it had been a long, long time since he had powered up. The lightning began to swirl, and an electric blue aura began to appear between the bolts.   


"Half power is all I will require to destroy you." Osiris said, his ki still rising.   


The, with no warning, he shot at Arda, his ki stabilizing as he flew, and buried a fist in his opponent's stomach.   


The red-haired vampire's face was crossed with surprise, and then pain as he doubled over. He tried to bring a hand up and swing back, but Osiris caught it easily.   


"Playtime's over now, Arda." he snarled, and flipped around, slamming Arda into the ground. There was a huge hollow boom as cracks spread around where he had struck the earth.   


Arda grit his teeth and growled out, "Double Kaio-ken!"   


The red aura burst even bigger around him, and he jumped to his feet, throwing Osiris' hand off.   


"Yes." he agreed. "Playtime's over."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan stared off into the distance. The ki they had all just felt...   


No doubt, it was far bigger than any of them were used to sensing. Right now, the two vampires appeared to be even, about at the level of Vegeta. But, then again, it was hard to tell. They were all having the same trouble sensing ki. Even so, it was plain that there was quite a bit of power being thrown around by Arda and Osiris.   


"So... the guy that was fighting Vegeta earlier is now stalling Osiris, so that you could give me and Piccolo senzu beans?" Gohan asked in confusion.   


Goten just nodded.   


Gohan was angry. Not just angry, but furious. It was bad enough that Osiris had attacked them , bad enough that he had killed Juuhachi-gou and nearly killed him and Piccolo.   


But now someone else was having to fight their battle so that he could get a senzu bean.   


"I'm not waiting any more. This has happened one time too many." Gohan said, his voice a low snarl. He felt himself reaching, reaching like he hadn't since his fight with Cell, for the hidden power. He hadn't been able to access it all before, but maybe...   


The others were backing away from him, wide eyed. His power had risen beyond what it had been when he was fighting Osiris. And it was still climbing.   


They kept backing up and white shards of ki lightning began to snap and burn the dirt and scant grasses around them.   


"No more. I won't let it happen anymore." he snarled. Then he let go.   


The rush of power was enormous, filling the five other warrior's whole world with blinding white. Gohan didn't yell, didn't scream, didn't make a sound. The only noises were the other's cries of surprise and the soft but savage roar of ki incinerating the earth.   


Then it cleared as quickly as it had begun. Goten, Trunks, Krillin, Piccolo, and Uubu were all on their backs several feet away, staring at the silent warrior in front of them.   


Gohan's hair billowed in the hard white aura that surrounded him, his eyes narrowed with the rage burning inside of him.   


"I guess the mystic form has it's own levels of power." Gohan said smoothly, his voice like a poisoned icicle. "I've reached mine. And I'm going to kill Osiris."   


With that, Gohan took off into the air, leaving the other bewildered fighters behind to stare after him. 

The five warriors stared after Gohan, none of them saying a word. They didn't doubt that he would carry through on his threat to end the vampire's life, and they also didn't want to be nearby when he did. Gohan was a powerhouse, above what any of them could even comprehend of reaching. Just the crossfire could be deadly.   


"What's that?" Krillin blurted out suddenly. He was gazing at a bank of black cloud on the horizon. It was moving slowly but steadily toward them.   


"That's the darkness." Goten said. "Remember what Korin said? A little while after that, and the gateway into hell's going to open up."   


Krillin's eyes widened. "I hope Goku and Vegeta get back soon." he said shortly.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


A huge, hollow BOOM echoed across the landscape as Osiris' fist slammed hard against Arda's waiting arm. Without pausing, the ice-eyed vampire spun and sent a hard kick to his opponents ribs, sending Arda flying back a few feet, before he was able to stop himself.   


The sky was already dark overhead, and the clouds were moving toward the Z warriors.   


"You are a fool, Arda." Osiris snarled. "You're going to die. You can't possibly think that I'll let you live after this. And all for a pack of mortals."   


Arda's expression wasn't of anger, it was pity. He wiped a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth absently and spoke.   


"A pack of mortals." Arda said in an almost mocking tone. "Osiris, mortals deserve life. They only have a few short years, before they wink out like a candle in a storm. Why not let them live their lives? Just for once, give life instead of death."   


The other vampire merely snarled. "How many times will you spew this garbage at me, Arda? How many times will you try to convince me that they deserve to live, when they are nothing but food?"   


Arda heaved a deep sigh. "I'm sorry for you, Osiris. Very sorry. Especially since I have to kill you. Then you'll know what it's like for all that 'food' that you've so thoughtlessly removed from the universe."   


The second the last syllable left Arda's lip's, Osiris threw a hand forward and blasted a huge beam of white at him. A look of surprise crossed Arda's face before he was engulfed.   


Osiris dived into the smoke, not waiting for it to clear. He felt a presence in front of him, low to the ground, and swung at it. There was a muffled snap of breaking bone as his fist collided with Arda's jaw.   


The red haired vampire was thrown backward out of the cloud, the Kaio-ken aura vanishing from him as he slammed into the hard packed earth and dug a trench in it with his body.   


"Shit." he muttered, and then winced painfully. His jaw had been shattered, and it would take a couple minutes to heal.   


His thoughts were cut off abruptly as Osiris' booted foot came into contact with his ribs, lifting him off the ground again and slamming him back down in another place.   


Osiris' footsteps came near at a leisurely pace, stopping at Arda's head. A second later, and his vision was filled with the other vampire's cold eyes, and he was dragged to his feet by a rough hand on his collar.   


"My, my, how the tables have turned. Death comes for you tonight, my old friend." Osiris said as he smiled cruelly in his opponent's face.   


"Death comes for us all." Arda said through his already partly healed jaw. "But it will be worse for you, Osiris, much worse. When you die, it will be without honor."   


Osiris' smile vanished. "Is that so?"   


"Yes." Arda muttered. "That's so." He smirked as best as he could. "Triple Kaio-KEN!!!"   


The huge red ki flared forth, making Arda's body literally glow with fiery intensity, and slamming Osiris back with a vengeance. The startled vampire flew back and landed on the ground, looking up in surprise and fear.   


A smile, barely visible but wracked with pain, crossed Arda's face. "A temporary solution, and nothing more." he said.   


Osiris smirked and stood back up.   


"Temporary is right. I'm really going to have to kill you now, and much more painfully than I intended to in the first place."   


Arda pointed one finger at Osiris, trained on the younger but more powerful vampire's heart.   


"I picked up this little move from King Kai. One of the most powerful he knew, and he didn't even invent it. It was actually invented by a warrior of this planet. If you're really convinced that you can kill me, that you're so much stronger, let it hit you."   


Osiris grinned. "Sure. Why not?"   


Arda grinned even wider. "Dodonpa!!"   


A beam of dark gold flew from his finger, a ball of ultra concentrated energy about a foot wide on the end.   


Osiris' grinning form blurred away, and the beam flew past him. Arda's eyes went wide in astonishment and anger, as the beam hit a cliff about half a mile away and detonated, lighting up the sky and blowing the rain away for a second.   


"Coward! Liar!!" Arda spat in anger, the Kaio-ken aura vanishing. He dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. His energy was almost gone, and it was still going, trying to keep his body up and working after the horrible strain of the Kaio-ken.   


After another second, the Kaio-ken aura vanished and he fell to his knees, almost unconscious from the strain.   


"Oh, are you tired, Arda? Your little power up technique too much for you?" Osiris' cruel voice snarled as he walked forward from the left. "You say I will die without honor? Well, I have something to tell you."   


He puled back his foot, his malicious smile growing. "You may die with honor, but it will be for nothing."   


He looped his foot around hard, Arda was to spent to even move. There was a sickening crack and a cry as his neck broke. He flew sideways with the momentum of the kick and landed flat on his back, not moving.   


"All for nothing." Osiris said again, and turned to walk away.   


Then he stopped.   


"Am I sensing what I think I am?" he asked himself. Because he couldn't be. He was sensing.... Gohan. But so much more powerful than before... more powerful than was possible.   


A point of white light appeared in the sky where it was still light, just beyond the edge of where the clouds were now. Even as he stared, a few heavy raindrops fell from the sky, spattering apart on his rock hard skin.   


"I am." he said to himself, and remembered the words Arda had said just a few minutes ago.   


The man, the child of Goku. He has more hidden power than you can dream of, Osiris.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan stared ahead with eyes as dark and stormy as the clouds he was flying into, thinking only of one thing. He had to kill Osiris.   


He saw the clouds ahead, and realized what they meant. But he didn't really care. Not right now. He was afraid, in some remote way, that if he turned his attention to something other than destroying the vampire, he would lose this strength that he had pulled up after so many years of ignoring it.   


Not far away now. He could clearly sense Osiris' immense ki, and also the low, almost nonexistent ki of the other vampire, the one that had probably saved his life by getting Krillin away from the battle. It was by following Krillin's energy signature that the three teens had been able to find him in the first place.   


"I promise, it wasn't for nothing." he said out loud, not knowing that he was contradicting what Osiris had just said earlier.   


Now he was almost there. He could see Osiris, standing in the already falling rain, waiting for him.   


He pulled up, checked his speed, and landed, less than three feet away from the monster, staring into those icy yet somehow afraid eyes.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


At first, neither of them said a thing. Then Osiris said, without even a trace of the fear he felt evident in his french sounding voice,   


"You've healed. How?" He sounded merely curious.   


"That's not your concern." Gohan said, not able to hide his anger and not wanting to. For the first time since Cell, and only the second in his life, he felt the distinct desire to kill. The desire for revenge.   


"I was merely interested." Osiris said, waving a hand in the air casually. "You are a saiyajin, correct? I had no recollection of that species having the power of regeneration."   


Gohan said nothing, but a ring of ki blasted out from his along the ground with the sound of thunder, causing Osiris to flinch just a bit.   


"Fine then." the vampire snarled. "You want revenge for my hurting you. That is plain. But you can just try to take it. You see what I did to the fool over there."   


Gohan shook his head. "No, I don't want revenge for what you did to me. I want revenge for what you did to Piccolo, for his pain, and for Juuhachi-gou, for her life, and for Krillin's pain because he lost her. And trust me, I will take it."   


Osiris' eyes went fearlessly cold again, and the irises began to spin. It took Gohan only a split second to feel the force coming at him, wrenching his body inside. The same force that wasn't ki, but something even more dangerous and more sinister.   


Then suddenly it stopped.   


Gohan snapped a look. Osiris' face was twisted in pain and effort.   


"Damn you, Arda! Stop that!" he yelled out, and Gohan's gaze fell to the ground. Just behind Osiris, a man with blood-red hair and eyes was crouching, all evidence of a broken neck vanished except for a ring of ugly bruises. His eyes were spinning and glowing, all the power directed at Osiris.   


"Attack him!" the man yelled. "You have the power that I don't! KILL HIM!!"   


Gohan needed no further urging.   


He shot forward through the air, his foot in front of him, his leg rigid as a spear. It slammed solidly home into Osiris' stomach.   


The vampire's face suddenly went wide eyed with pain as Gohan's foot sank in and a sizable bulge appeared in his back where it was pushing out. The rain was pouring down by this time, and water mixed with blood that was trickling out of Osiris' nose and open mouth.   


Suddenly something fell at Gohan's feet. He glanced quickly down and saw that a metal tube with a button on the side had fallen from Osiris' belt.   


"Use it!" Arda cried out. "You have enough ki to make a blade powerful enough to kill him! Press the button on the side and GO FOR THE NECK!!"   


Gohan let his foot fall and picked up the tube as fast as he could. Osiris was doubled over, blood trickling from his mouth, clutching his stomach. Gohan pressed the button on the tube, and a white blade of ki about four feet in length shot out from the handle.   


He glanced at Osiris.   


"Don't.... you can't... kill me. I'm..... immortal....!" the vampire muttered.   


"I can." Gohan said. "And I am."   


He brought the ki sword around in a blurring loop, closing his eyes as he did it. He felt the soft push as the blade encountered resistance, and then plowed through.   


He opened his eyes.   


A look of surprise crossed Osiris' face, and pain. He began to reach up toward his neck.   


Then there was a surprisingly small gush of blood, and the head rolled off, like something from a cheap horror movie.   


Gohan's aura abruptly vanished, his power gone, and he sank to his knees, dropping the ki sword. The second it left his grasp, the blade vanished, it's power gone with Gohan's. He saw in front of him a fairly disturbing image of Osiris' arms clawing at the air where his head should have been. There was almost no blood, because Osiris hadn't fed in a while, though Gohan didn't know that.   


The body slumped over and fell to the ground, and Gohan's gaze followed it, right to Osiris' head, lying there, it's eyes and mouth still wide open in pain.   


He stared, and the full force of what he had just done hit him. He had done what he hated to do, and had told himself that he could never do again. He had taken life. No matter how horribly evil Osiris had been, no matter that he had killed Juuhachi-gou and probably millions of nameless beings on nameless planets, Gohan had still killed him.   


The half breed saiyajin turned his face to the sky and just looked. He wasn't going crazy, and he wasn't going to be grief stricken forever, but for now he was still.   


When he finally looked down, Osiris' body was still there, all ki and life vanished completely, but Arda was gone. 


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven:

Gohan stood up, not even minding the rain water that had completely soaked him now that his ki had been suppressed. It rolled down his face and arms, until he was just another object out in the rain with water passing over him, like a rock or a tree.   


"I'm sorry." Gohan said shortly. "I wouldn't have killed you if I didn't have to. I hope you can see that, wherever your soul has gone."   


Having said that, and not wanting to sit next to the body any longer than he had to, he took off into the air, intent on finding his fiends, and then getting them and his own family all to capsule corp. as fast as possible, so they could talk.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku sighed with relief as he saw Gohan get up and fly away on the crystal ball that old Kaio-shin had conjured for them. At least this way he could see what was happening on earth.   


"I guess he did it alright." Goku said with a smile.   


Vegeta huffed. "He didn't do too badly, Kakarott, not too badly. But I'm much more interested in finding out about that thing." he pointed to the crystal ball, where they could still see Osiris' body. "I want to know where he came from, how he's so strong, and how he knows our red-headed mystery warrior."   


Goku sighed. "Well, we can't exactly ask him, now can we?"   


"But there are ways to find out. And aren't you the least bit concerned that there might be more of them?"   


Goku's head shook back and forth. "I don't think there are. If there were, they probably would have attacked by now."   


Vegeta shrugged but said nothing.   


"I suppose we haven't much time now." Dende said. "The sky has turned black, so that means less than six hours until the gateway into hell opens, right?"   


Kaio-bit nodded. "But a lot can happen in six hours. We aren't sure of what kind of back up this Osiris may have brought with him. Don't forget those robots." he shook his head. "Maybe not enough to kill any of you, but the innocent humans are just as much all of our responsibility."   


Goku nodded vigorously. Vegeta still sat silently, though he knew it to be true and actually agreed with it.   


"This is going to get pretty rough, I think." King Kai said. "We've had reports in the past week or so that word about the Golden Moon has spread like wildfire around hell, and Frieza and Cell are pretty anxious to get out." he looked from one saiyajin to the other. "I've also heard that they're quite a bit more powerful than before."   


A snicker broke out from Vegeta, and he smiled. "I'll enjoy this. Listen Kakarott, I want to kill Frieza. You had your chance, and so did my son. My turn this time."   


Goku shrugged. "Whatever you say, Vegeta. But I don't think either of them should be a problem."   


"No, probably not for you two, or Gohan either." King Kai agreed. "But don't underestimate them. It shouldn't be all too hard, but you guys will really have to watch out for numbers. Don't let people get past you."   


Goku and Vegeta gave short, quick nods.   


"Oh...," King Kai said hesitantly. "There is one more thing..."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan landed softly on his front lawn, rain still dripping from his in rivers. It was really pouring by now.   


He smiled as he saw the little girl's face in the window go from worried to a huge smile in a second, and then vanish as Pan ran toward the door. He could practically hear her yelling, 'daddy's home!'.   


Sure enough, the front door opened and Pan rushed out into the rain, absolutely heedless of Videl's cries to come back, to not get herself all wet. She rushed forward, and Gohan scooped her up into his arms.   


"Hey, Pan-chan. Did you miss me?" he asked as he squeezed his daughter.   


"Yeah, but I wasn't worried at all!" Pan said, shaking her head violently and confirming that she had indeed been very worried. "Sumthin' was wrong, though. I couldn't tell what was going on very well."   


Gohan smiled. "That's okay, all of us had the same problem, Panny."   


Videl appeared in the doorway and waved him inside, trying to look put out, but not able to hide a smile.   


"And what took you so long, Son Gohan?" Videl asked as soon as he was inside and the door was shut. "What happened? Come on, I want to know what's going on."   


Gohan smirked and held his hands up in front of him in a mock defense. "Okay, okay. But I'll tell you on the way to capsule corp., alright?"   


"Capsule corp.?" Videl tilted her head in confusion. "Why on earth are we going to capsule corp.?"   


"I'll explain later, just come on." he said, still smiling, but serious at the same time.   


She rolled her eyes and followed Gohan, who was still carrying Pan, out into the pouring rain.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"I'll meet you guys at capsule corp., then?" Goten said.   


Piccolo nodded. "You go get your mom, and meet us there. That's where Gohan's headed."   


"It'll be safer if you don't go by yourself." Uubu said. "We know Gohan defeated Osiris, but he may not be dead." he shrugged. "You know how Gohan is. He might have let the guy live."   


They all were silent for a minute, pondering this. Then Trunks spoke.   


"I'll go with you, Goten."   


The younger saiyajin nodded, and they took off, Trunks waving slightly. Before more than a couple seconds had passed, they were out of sight, and because of the strange way ki was being blocked, none of the three remaining warriors could sense them at all.   


As they took off into the sky, Krillin looked nervously at Piccolo.   


"Uh, you don't think Gohan really would have let that monster live, do you Piccolo?" he asked. "I mean, after he... after what he did to Juu-chan, Gohan wouldn't have let him live?"   


Piccolo's eyes narrowed slightly, though it was hard to see in the rain that was now pouring down over them as well. "I don't think so. It's very unlikely. But it's always best to be cautious."   


The small warrior turned his face away, still a bit worried. "I hope you're right, Piccolo. I really hope you're right."   


"I don't think Gohan would have left him alive." Uubu said. "But I think he might still be alive."   


The other two warrior's heads snapped around to Uubu, eyes wide.   


"What do you mean?" Krillin said. "How could he still be alive if Gohan thought he was dead?"   


Uubu's face was unusually thoughtful, bot looking really like himself. "I still have a few memories of... the monster my soul used to belong to. Including memories of hell. And... there were vampires there."   


He turned and looked thoughtfully at Krillin and Piccolo. "They were extraordinarily resistant to death when they were alive. I mean, short of incinerating them alive or decapitating them and taking the head out of reach of the body, I don't know if they can be killed."   


"You're... are you sure?" Krillin asked. "I mean, you're not exaggerating, are you?"   


Uubu shook his head. "Let's hope Gohan did the job. That thing was way too powerful for anyone but Goku-sensei to beat, I think."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan's family arrived by air-car at the same time Piccolo, Krillin, and Uubu landed in front of capsule corp. As Gohan got out of the vehicle, Pan still held in his arms, he nodded slightly to the three warriors, the way men nod when they pass each other in a crowded hall. The gesture seemed very out of place in the situation, but the three fighters answered it without a pause.   


"So. Here we are." Piccolo said shortly. "Goten and Trunks should be arriving with ChiChi any second."   


Gohan nodded.   


"Shall we go in?" Uubu asked. "We're kind of getting soaked. Again."   


A slight smile cracked Gohan's face, and Videl rolled her eyes. "Oh, look. A fighter with sense!"   


They went up to the door in a line, Gohan in front holding Pan, Videl behind him, followed by the three others in a group.   


Gohan reached up to knock, but before his hand had a chance to rap on the door, it swung open. Bulma stood framed in light, Bura at her knee.   


"Hey, you guys." she said, her voice thick with worry. "Come inside."   


She walked back into the house, or, more to the point, the kitchen. The door they had knocked on led to a back kitchen, where Bulma and Bura had been sitting. The lights were all off.   


"The power's out all over the city." Bulma said, moving several candles off of a table so that they would all have something to sit around. "They all went out at the exact same time as those weird clouds came over. We've been sitting in here, because it's the most fire resistant of all the rooms. Have you guys seen some of that lightning?"   


"Bulma, we all have to talk." Piccolo said. "We don't know when Goku and Vegeta will be back, but..."   


"There stuck somewhere." Bulma said.   


"What?" Piccolo's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"   


She shrugged, looking at the floor. "I just do. But they're stuck somewhere, and can't get back. At least, not yet."   


Piccolo cocked one eye ridge, requesting more information.   


"That's all I know." Bulma said. "Ever since Vegeta and I...." she blushed slightly. "You know. Well, ever since, we've both had limited access to each other's thoughts. But that was all I got."   


Piccolo looked as if he was about to say something else, when the door opened.   


Almost in slow motion, a hand as white as bleached bone, with exceptionally long glossy nails, wrapped around the edge of the door and pushed it open. Then a head peeked through, hair the color of blood, face as pale and strange as the hands. Then the door opened the rest of the way, and the figure in the doorway was framed in the pale light and the rain from outside. Piccolo noticed with some shock that there was a ring of rather bad bruises around the boy's neck.   


"Please, I didn't mean to startle you." Arda said, his face a mask of physical pain. "May I please come in?"   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"There is one more thing..." King Kai said, but he was cut off by a sharp cry from Vegeta.   


"Look! Oh, Kami in heaven, Kakarott, he's alive!!"   


Vegeta was pointing to the crystal ball, which was still stuck on the image of Osiris. Goku gazed into it, and his eyes widened in horror.   


One hand of Osiris' body was holding the head and putting it back on the shoulders.   


Gohan stepped across the room un-hesitantly and looked the vampire in the face.   


"Yes, come in." he said.   


"Wha... who...." Bulma stammered, startled by the man's pale skin that almost gave off light and the eyes that shined out of his face like fire. "Who are you...?"   


He smiled. "I'm Arda." he said. No matter how strange he looked, his voice was kind and pleasant. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."   


Bulma nodded, but her eyes were still wide. "Oh. Arda. Sure."   


He smiled again and stepped into the room, water puddling on the floor beneath him. "I know I'm a little strange looking to you, but trust me, I don't bite." he shut the door behind him, making the sound of pouring rain fade again into the background.   


"Here, have a seat." Gohan said, gesturing to a chair.   


Arda shook his head. "No thank you. I'm not staying for more than a second. I came to alert you all of something very important, the something I came here for."   


The Z fighters stared, waiting.   


"I really wanted to tell Goku this." Arda sighed. "But a few things got in my way."   


"Like Osiris." Krillin said suddenly.   


Arda nodded. "I can't tell you all how sorry I am about that. Trust me, if I had known that he was going to come here, I would have warned you as soon as possible."   


"Who is he?" Piccolo broke in. "What did he come here for, and why did he immediately want to kill us with no provocation whatsoever? It doesn't make any sense."   


Arda looked at Piccolo for a second, then sighed. "He's a vampire, like me. We were made by the same master, only he was made almost a thousand years later than I was." He stopped, waiting for some kind of response, like he usually got when he mentioned the word vampire. There was none, just the slight sound of Bulma gulping.   


"You might say he was my replacement. After so long, our master wasn't satisfied with me anymore, and made Osiris to take my place. He was made with more care and effort than me, so he ended up being more powerful, eventually." he paused. "That and he drinks quite a bit of blood."   


"He was here because of the Golden Moon. See, I don't know if anyone told you this, but when it appears, the first person to see the moon is given a huge amount of power. You've all seen enough of his personality, so I guess you know why he's trying to kill you."   


They all looked at him, fear and worry crossing Bulma and Krillin's faces, thoughtfulness on Piccolo and Gohan. Videl sat completely still, her expression unreadable. Pan sat on her lap, arms crossed, her child's face screwed into a look of defiance that was almost comical. Bura was crowded up to Bulma, peeking out from behind here legs. Uubu leaned against a wall, simply looking with no clear emotion at all.   


"So, why did you come here in the first place?" Piccolo asked.   


Arda sighed. "I came to ask for help, and to warn you about something that's going to come out of hell. Something so powerful that all of your combined powers, and mine, are nothing to it."   


"Wait a minute." Uubu said. "More powerful than all of us put together? Even Goku-sensei isn't that strong."   


"No, you're right." Arda said. "He's not even close. That's why I came to warn you."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


A starkly white hand pawed through the dirt, reaching and feeling around for something. This in itself was not very alarming. The alarming thing was that the body it was attached to had no head.   


The head lay about two feet away from the shoulders, a slow trickle of blood running from the neck. The flow was so little that it was shocking in itself. Normally, in a complete decapitation such as this, the dirt for several feet around would be red mud, but it was not, only blackened and charred from the ki battle, and not yet made into fresh mud by the heavy rain. A similar slow trickle ran from the neck of the headless body. The blood was a very dark red, and shimmered, almost moving, like something alive.   


Osiris at this point was capable of no rational thought, or any thought at all, really. His body was on auto pilot, simply trying to get itself into a position where it could survive. The hand groping blindly in the dirt was searching for the head, trying to put it back on the shoulders.   


This was a very, very dangerous spot for any vampire, and probably the closest to dying that Osiris had ever come. There was a matter of perhaps thirty minutes that his vampiric power would keep him alive before his body would shut down. After that, he would simply die.   


The hand had been groping about for close to ten minutes now, and had only once come even close to the head, it's eyes and mouth still open and blank in a dying scream. Once back on the body, it would be again animated, but for now, it was as dead as the dirt and ash it rested in.   


The hand was clawing close to it, closer than it had come so far, mere inches away. But it's movements were getting slow and sluggish as the blood drained bit by bit from the body. The perfectly trimmed fingernails scraped the dirt a fraction of an inch from the short hair.   


The hand's movements were tired, and just when it looked like the body may be ready to give it up, the tip of one finger brushed a strand of hair. Reacting instantly, the whole arm swung over and grasped the short blue-black hair of the vampire's head, pulling it back toward the body.   


By this time Osiris' body was becoming far too weak to lift the head into place. It dragged it through the dirt, then turning it when it got to the body so that the neck was pointing towards where it was supposed to go.   


(Osiris didn't find out until later, but this was where Goku and Vegeta began watching in the crystal ball.)   


What happened then was very strange. When the severed ends of the throat were drawn next to each other, they were immediately and swiftly pulled together as if by magnets. But even before they joined, veins, muscle, and nerves were visible re-attaching themselves and healing.   


The second the head was rejoined with the body, the eyes became suddenly aware, blinking. The mouth closed instantly, but for a second the eyes only blinked and retained their blank look. Them, Osiris rolled over onto his back and sat up.   


"I'm alive." he muttered in an awed voice. "I'm.... I'm alive!" If the Z fighters had seen him, they hardly would have recognized him. He didn't look... well, as evil as he had.   


For some reason, he didn't feel any anger right now. Only strange awe and disbelief. He was sure that Gohan had finally done what whole civilizations of warriors hadn't been able to do in two thousand years. He had been sure when he felt the sharp blade of his own ki sword sink into his neck, that this was the end.   


But here he was, less than a quarter of an hour later, his neck slowly healing itself, as he looked of wide eyed into the pouring rain.   
  
  


But he still didn't feel angry. He felt tired, exhausted for want of blood to help him heal, but he wasn't feeling any kind of vengeful rage like he thought he should be.   


He felt that his neck was healed enough for him to move around without his head literally falling off, so he stood up and looked around.   


Visibility was cut quite a bit because of the rain that was coming down in sheets, but he could still see further than a human. The dirt around him and for a good fifty yards was charred hard from the battle, so it wasn't a puddle, but past that it was almost a flood. All he could see besides that were boulders. No animals, no people.   


"Nothing to feed from." he muttered, the question of his anger at Son Gohan forgotten for the moment in favor of more pressing matters. Such as blood to help him heal and reach his full strength. If the Z fighters were to attack him right now, he would still be able to beat the lesser ones. But Gohan would be a real problem, not to mention if Arda was with them.   


The thought of blood was lost for a moment in that. He still didn't feel angry, but a bit puzzled. What in the hell had Arda been doing here? They hadn't seen each other in person for years upon years, but he hadn't expected to meet his rival/friend here.   


A pang of thirst hit him, and he pushed all thoughts out of his mind until later. He had to have blood, so that he could fully heal. Preferably blood from someone stronger than these weakling homo sapien.   


Then, as if in answer to a prayer, Goten and Trunks flew over his head on their way to Korin's tower.   


He smiled maliciously, and let himself float up into the air without using ki, the way only a vampire could. Moving faster than the eyes of even the saiyajin could accurately track, he flew up behind the two boys.   


Neither boy heard or sensed his approach, until Goten felt a cold hand close over his mouth.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"NO!!" Goku screamed out, jumping up from his seat on the grass. A huge rush of gold ki blasted along the ground as he went super saiyajin. "Goten!!!"   


The crystal ball first cracked under the strain of the rushing ki wave, and then it shattered.   


"Kakarott!" Vegeta screamed, but Goku's eyes had suddenly gone blank. His body was still there, but his mind was now uncountable miles away.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goten felt the hand, cold as stone and just as hard, close over his mouth. At the same time, he felt a very powerful consciousness slip into his mind. He was powerful, but as Trunks had pointed out earlier, he was undisciplined from lack of training. He couldn't resist the psychic power as it probed his brain, locking his muscles and tightening his vocal cords.   


Osiris smiled as his head leaned forward and his lips brushed the skin of Goten's throat, the teeth only inches from sinking in. All else was shut out to a dull throb, and he was only dimly aware that Trunks had turned and was rushing back to help his friend.   


His mouth opened, revealing the two razor fangs for one instant before they sank into the soft flesh of the demi-saiyajin's throat.   


Trunks saw this, and at the same second reached the pair. He didn't have time to wonder how Osiris was still alive, or how he had gotten a hold of Goten. He just attacked.   


But before his fist had even left his side, an arm that he couldn't even see for the speed lashed out and rapped him smartly on the temple. His eyes closed, and he fell from the sky, out cold.   


And as they always did when he fed, the images came, to Osiris and to his victim.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


At first Goten could hear nothing but a roar, like a white water river, and see nothing but red. Gradually, though, pictures began to come through.   


In an instant, he knew Osiris thoroughly. He saw many pictures of Arda, and another that was so old his skin actually gave off a blinding white radiance. But they were the only other vampires besides Osiris that he caught more than very brief glimpses of.   


Most of the strange images he saw were of things he couldn't grasp, and didn't know. He saw many, many different kinds of beings being slaughtered. Apparently, most of Osiris' life had consisted of killing.   


Most of the things he saw were only fleeting images, but even in the swoon, he was able to get two things that he could understand.   


The first was a picture of Osiris kneeled in front of a very old namek that was dressed all in colored robes. Though he heard no words and couldn't understand at first, the gist of the image came clear. The namek was a magician, this was very long ago, and he was casting a spell to make Osiris able to live in the sun.   


The second was a huge book, even older than the one in Korin's library, open to the legend of the Golden Moon. He felt the lust for power as if it where his own.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris was also seeing images. As with Goten, most of what he saw was unclear to him, he didn't understand. But he didn't really care.   


It was a little different though, because he could see many things in these memory fragments that Goten couldn't, such as people's thoughts. A few caught his eye, and he paid attention.   


One of these was a memory of learning to fly, which he found slightly touching, but boring after a few seconds. Another was of sex, which he could not experience in the way mortals could.   


The last was a memory of Goten's childhood, of first meeting his father.   


He saw the boy go running into Goku's arms, crying out in happiness, and the two talking and laughing.   


But then, Goku dropped the boy, and looked at him.   


In the blink of an eyes, Osiris realized that some how, some way, his mind was being invaded by someone from the outside.   


The image of Goku strode toward him, it's hair flashing gold.   


"Let go of my son!" it yelled. "Let go of him now or I'll make you pay. I have the power, monster."   


Almost in pain, definitely more afraid than he had been for a long while, Osiris snapped back into the real world and pulled himself away from Goten's neck.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


When Goten's eyes opened, Osiris was holding him by the collar of his gi, a look that was a mixture of anger, fear, and mostly confusion plastered across his face.   


He was having trouble focusing, and he realized dimly that he had lost a huge amount of blood, maybe even enough to kill him.   


"What is your father?"   


At first, Goten thought he had misheard the question, but he hadn't, because Osiris plowed on.   


"What is he that he can do that? No saiyajin has such a power that they can break into my mind when I am feeding. What is he?" fear was imprinted clearly, making lines of frustration on the vampire's normally completely smooth features. The fear was producing anger, as well. "What is he?"   


Goten didn't answer at first, but then the answer broke free, almost without him knowing it.   


"He's the legendary. He's the super saiyajin, the pure of heart warrior."   


Osiris' mouth twisted in a disdainful sneer. "You have served your purpose, saiyajin. You may have enough blood left to live. I really didn't have any desire to bring you harm, only to preserve myself. And for that, I will give you assistance."   


Goten suddenly lost all sense of direction as Osiris plunged downward, and landed in the mud next to Trunks. He was dropped and landed on his back in the muck, staring at his unconscious friend.   


"Perhaps he can help you." Osiris said, and laid one finger of Trunks' neck. Goten felt a minute flash of some force that wasn't ki, and Trunks' eyes snapped open.   


"You!" he yelled instantly, but before he could even move, the vampire had moved too fast for them to see and was gone.   



	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight:

The lowest hells were silent.   


That in itself was definitely cause for alarm. It was the one place in the universe where peace and quiet always meant that something was wrong. The absence of the screams of the tortured, and the angry yells of the Marshals, not to mention the strange chittering and gurgling of the creatures in the pools was unsettling. Or at least it would have been, had there been anyone left to unsettle.   


Because it didn't take a genius to figure out that almost everything here was dead.   


The creatures in the pools were still alive, but quiet. There was nothing to eat, and no one around. So why would they make noise? If there was no hope of food, their purpose was served for now and they could be silent.   


Then a sound came. Only a small sound, but it was very loud in the huge emptiness. A few chitters came from the pools in reaction, but that was all.   


The sound was the sound of feet striking the hard rock that made up the floor of hell.   


Far off, it was coming up, a shadow that was not really anything at all. But it was taking a shape, that was why the sound of footsteps was apparent. It came closer, moving far too fast to be walking, but walking all the same. Feet were already visible, and legs. They were clad in skin tight black, but wether that was the thing's skin or really cloth was impossible to tell. It continued down to a three toed foot, quite a bit like Frieza's, each toe tipped with a black claw.   


As the shadow continued to take form, it also slowed down. Drawing level with one of the bubbling, boiling pools of magma, it stopped. Now it seemed to be flesh up to the waist, with no sign of any kind of features but the muscular black 'skin'. As it stopped, the thing in the pool seemed to go mad, throwing itself into the air, giving a glimpse of a body that looked like a long house cat without legs, powered by a huge tail at the end. Instead of a mouth, there was just an open slit, and teeth as narrow and sharp as needles could be seen. Then it hit the magma, splattering the molten mixture over the shadow. It immediately steamed and disappeared.   


Now the shadow was swirling about the chest, and arms had begun to appear, each with hands that were as black and shiny as the rest, fingers over a foot long and tapering to razor sharp points. One hand waved out toward the pool, and the creature in it immediately died.   


Now the shadow swirled up quickly, and made a head and hair in a flash, using the last of it's substance as it took shape.   


The hair was wild and spiky, saiyajin like, and hung to the shoulders at it's lowest point, it had none of the shine of the thing's skin, only a dull sheen that was normal for coarse hair.   


The face was a break from all the black, it was simple pale skin, the face bony and skeletal like the rest of the body, though muscle was apparent. All the teeth in the mouth were fangs, visible under the thin, slightly parted lips.   


But the eyes...   


The eyes were jet black, no whites, no irises. Just a plain shiny black eyes like glass, with no eyebrows above them. In the center of each was a glowing pinpoint of red fire, and if you stared at it long enough, it would consume your whole mind and drive you mad.   


"Ah, it does feel good to be in my true form." Morgoth laughed. "Unimaginably good."   


He was the reason everything else in the lowest hell except for the things in the pools were dead. He had killed them all in one simple out-rush of ki, their spirits simply vanishing. The other hells were untouched by his power, so the things like Frieza and Cell were still there. But he cared for them not at all. They were creatures that followed their own designs, and would never really bend to his will. They would always have treachery on their minds.   


Really, almost everyone in hell was like that, at least the strong ones. He had left the things in the pools, that he amusingly called the gluttons, alive only because they were utterly mindless and would do whatever he wanted, which was kill.   


He chuckled as he thought of the lovely carnage he would create when he was alive again.   


Only four hours left until the gateway opened.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Trunks stomped angrily around for a few minutes, trying to find the mysteriously vanished Osiris, before he finally returned to his injured friend. His anger had begun to cool, or at least get out of the way, and he was very afraid for Goten.   


"Trunks-kun?" Goten said weakly as his best friend leaned over him. "I don't know how much longer I can stay awake. He." Goten paused, even talking was taking his breath away. "He got a lot of blood. A whole lot."   


Trunks shook his head. "You'll be fine Goten. We'll just get you a senzu bean and you'll be good as new, right?"   


He smiled weakly. "Right."   


Trunks nodded strongly and picked up Goten, taking off for Korin's tower, which was just visible from the sky. He had to fly slowly, though. Goten was so weak that Trunks figured to much speed could render him unconscious.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


ChiChi was pacing back and forth nervously just enough under the ledge so that she wasn't hit by the pouring rain that splattered on the white marble floor a few feet in from the edge. Korin and Yajirobi were sitting more towards the middle, playing cards and trying to ignore her steady stream of alternating curses and expressions of worry.   


"I can't believe you just let them take off! My poor little boy, out there fighting those monsters, helpless! What the hell is wrong with you bastards, just letting kids run off like that!?"   


"Go fish." Yajirobi said dully. Korin picked up a card, and triumphantly laid down his last pair of kings.   


"Hah! I win again!"   


"Ah, big deal. You cheated." Yajirobi grumbled.   


"How can you be playing cards at a time like this!?" ChiChi screamed. "Oh, my poor little boys, off fighting a horrible monster. And my Goku, lost somewhere far away!" she lamented, then turned back to Yajirobi and Korin. "And oh, you couldn't just tell them not to go, oh, no! You had to..."   


"Umm... a little help?"   


All three turned and looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Trunks standing, dripping gray rain water on the floor. He was holding an almost unconscious Goten.   


"Oh, no!" ChiChi yelled, running forward. "My poor little Goten!"   


Korin jumped up. "A senzu bean!" he said, and Yajirobi quickly reached to a pouch that was resting on the floor under the table, a near empty pouch. In it was the very last senzu bean, the only one that they hadn't given to the boys earlier.   


ChiChi was next to him before he realized it, and she snatched the senzu bean away. Again she zipped away, back to Goten's side, and quickly placed the bean gently in the boy's mouth.   


Trunks sat Goten down on the floor, as the young demi's jaw muscles slowly worked at crushing up the senzu bean and swallowing it.   


"What happened?" Korin asked Trunks. "What in the world did that? Is there another enemy we have to worry about?"   


Trunks shook his head. "No, nobody new. I don't know how, and I can't even begin to guess, but somehow Osiris survived Gohan. It was Osiris. He drank Goten's blood."   


Korin's eyes widened considerably, (which meant that they were actually visible) and he looked quite troubled.   


"He bit him?"   


Trunks nodded, a look of worry stamped across his features. "That doesn't mean he's going to..."   


"Become a vampire?" Korin said, his composure back now. "Oh, no. It's not that simple to become a vampire. But I don't know how much help a senzu bean will be."   


Even as he said it, Goten let out a low groan from the floor. He had swallowed the bean only seconds after it had been put in his mouth, bit there was still almost no sign of any improvement, save that the puncture wounds on his neck had vanished.   


Trunks knelt by his friend's side, looking more worried than ever. "Is he going to die?"   


"Hmm..." Korin looked down at Goten, a paw on his chin, deep in thought. "It's hard to say. He very well may."   


"What!?" Trunks jumped to his feet. "No way! He can't die!"   


ChiChi knelt down where Trunks had been sitting, and she was holding a wet rag in her hand that she had just gotten while Trunks had been talking. She placed it on her son's head, and he seemed to calm at once.   


"You'll be okay, Goten." she said. "You'll be just fine."   


Trunks' teeth gritted together. "I can't just let this happen." he said. "That monster might have killed my best friend." his hair flashed gold. "Killed him!"   


"Trunks..." ChiChi looked up at him. "You can't do what you're thinking about doing! It's far too dangerous!"   


Paying absolutely no attention to her, Trunks blurred out and reappeared next to the rail of the tower.   


"There's no way I'm letting that... that thing Osiris get away with this!" he said. Then he took off, before anyone could say another word.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris floated casually over a small section of woods, not minding the rain in the least. His clothing was water proof, and liquid just slid off his skin like it slid off a marble statue. If he had bothered to thoroughly read the minds of any of the Z warriors, he would have known that he was only a couple of miles from Tien and Choutzu's house.   


He was thinking.   


He was feeling far different than he had in a great while. He wasn't regretting that he had probably killed Goten, and he likewise wasn't regretting the damage he had caused to the rest of the Z warriors. But he wasn't feeling much of anything.   
  
  


Perhaps it was coming so close to death that made him feel this way, and it would soon wear off. He doubted that, but it was possible. The thing was, he was feeling no urge for violence. He had felt no joy at nearly taking the young demi-saiyajin's life, none at all, and that was unheard of for him. He had felt wonder at drinking blood, as he always did, but none of the wonderful lust for violence that had carried him through so many long centuries.   


It was amazing, the thoughts that were occurring to him. He looked at his own white, pore-less and lineless hand, and saw it like he was seeing it for the first time. Even the sensation of the rain on his white skin was new. He felt nothing so far as extreme emotion, but it was strange, as if he was learning to pay attention to things all over again.   


"I wonder." he said to himself, and that was all. He ran a hand through his short, glossy hair. He was feeling no uncontrollable urge to kill, an feeling that had been ever present his entire un-life.   


"But it would still be lovely to kill that other one who destroyed my robot." he said. That did bring a little bit of a smile, but not as much as he had thought it would. If the boy were in his path, Osiris would kill him and take pleasure in it, but he didn't feel like seeking him out. It just didn't seem all that important.   


And unknown to him, Trunks was rushing straight at him, foolishly intent on throwing his life away to avenge a friend he believed would die.   


Pausing momentarily in his flight, Trunks looked around him to make sure that there were no people, buildings, or even animals in sight. Unlike his father, he wasn't into destroying things when he let loose.   


Satisfied that there was nothing around, he did what he almost never allowed himself to do. He unleashed every bit of power in his body.   


Knowing that he would have to be at his best to beat Osiris, and that even then he would be hopelessly overpowered, fueled his resolve. His screams echoed in the empty air, as his hair gained a couple inches in length, and bright ki lightning snapped and whipped around his body. An orb of ki surrounded him, making him utterly invisible to any prying eyes.   


Then it stopped. As suddenly as he had begun, his scream cut off, and the bright sphere of ki began to dissipate, reveling a very angry Trunks in the full power of SSj2 mode.   


"Now for it." he whispered to himself. Then he took off for Osiris.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goten's eyes snapped abruptly open fro a grey dream when he sensed Trunks power up.   


"No!" he yelled out. "You can't control it Trunks! Stop!!"   


ChiChi jumped back as her son got up suddenly, wobbling and dizzy from severe blood loss, but up.   


"Goten, what are you doing!?" she yelled, knowing the answer to her question already. "You can't go out after him! You're too weak! You need to rest."   


Goten, breathing heavily, shook his head. "Mom, I have to. Trunks thinks that I'm going to die, and that's why he went to attack Osiris. If I don't go help him, I might as well have killed him myself."   


ChiChi shook her head back and forth violently. "But you're hurt! You can't help Trunks if you can hardly even stand."   


Goten reached slowly to his belt and pulled up the almost empty pouch that hung there. "I have one left. One that Gohan didn't take." he said.   


At first she didn't see what he was talking about, but then she understood when he shook one last senzu bean out into his trembling palm. The very last one.   


"This is it." he said. "After this is gone, there are no more."   


He dropped the bean back into the pouch, and levitated off the ground a foot or so.   


"I'm taking it with me." he said. "Trunks isn't strong enough, and I'm definitely not, especially now." he smirked ruefully. "But I bet I know someone who is."   


ChiChi put a hand on her son's arm. "You mean Gotenks, right?"   


He nodded.   


She gripped his arm even tighter. "I guess I can't stop you, not now." she said with a shaky sigh. "But please, Goten, be careful."   


He nodded, and flew off before more words could be said.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


As soon as he was out of sight of Korin's tower, he summoned all the power he could and his hair flashed gold, his eyes aqua blue. The extra power of super saiyajin would help him keep awake. He really was weak, after losing so much blood. And he had to move fast to get to Trunks in time.   


But part of him knew that he was already too late. Trunks had a lot of power hidden inside him. Not as much as Gohan, not even close, but it was still more than was safe. He never used it, not when he could help it. Truthfully, it scared him. He had admitted this to Goten, but to no one else.   


It scared him. Level three was a lot more powerful, and harder to control, according to both Goku and Vegeta, but super saiyajin two was no joke, especially for a kid whose life's worth of training didn't add up to what Vegeta did in six months.   


The boys were a lot different now, Goten always going after girls, too nice sometimes to just say no, but usually wanting to. Trunks had turned out to be the serious, more powerful of the two. Now Goten wished that it was him in his best friend's place.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris had been simply staring at the ground, allowing the rain to drip over him as he sat deep in thought. But when he felt Trunks' ki rapidly rise, he looked up with interest. He was a realist, he knew the kid would be coming to him. Perhaps his friend had died.   


What kind of imbecile attacks someone over five times their own power because a friend died? He wondered, not able to come up with a sufficient answer. He really didn't think that he had taken enough blood to kill the young saiyajin, but maybe he had. Or maybe the other, his mind in a more pessimistic state after the last few hours, had made a bad assumption.   


Either way, he was throwing his life away.   


Osiris stood, just in time to see a gold star of energy quickly take form and streak from the direction of Korin's tower. In less than a second, it had covered the distance of several miles and he was standing face to face with a very angry Trunks.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


For a second, they just looked at each other, Trunks' face a twisted mask of rage, Osiris' as cool and smooth as ever. Finally, the vampire broke the silence.   


"I don't understand you." he said, and the strangeness of the question gave Trunks pause.   


"What's not to understand!?" he almost screamed hotly. "You killed my friend. My best friend from when I was just a baby. I have to kill you. And I will." Trunks' eyes were two blue glints of ice, suddenly as cold and malicious as Osiris' own. "I will."   


The vampire laughed a bit and shook his head, although he was actually taken back by the boy's bravery.   


"I'm sorry to throw water on your fire, young Trunks." he said, pulling the name from Trunks' mind with ease. "But I didn't take enough of his blood to kill him. You are throwing your life away for nothing."   


Trunks' eyes suddenly went dark with doubt. "Liar! You're just trying to get out of a fight! You're scared." he said, now more sure of himself. "Just scared."   


He may have been ready to say more, but a quick burst of power from Osiris made the ground tremble. That wouldn't have been shocking, but there was no ki at all coming from him. Just that strange sinister power that he had used to kill Juuhachi-gou.   


"No." he smiled again.   


Trunks redoubled his power, throwing out his aura in a golden net, banishing fear. Fear made you weak, and he didn't have room for any weakness if he intended to survive this and avenge Goten, who he believed to be dead, despite Osiris' claims to the contrary.   


Then it happened. He heard Goten's voice, directly behind him, yelling for him not to do it.   


He turned his head for a split second, and saw his friend flying slowly (well, slowly for a super saiyajin) towards him.   


He realized his mistake too late, as Osiris attacked.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


His head whipped back around, just in time to glimpse a fist before it collided with his face, shattering his nose and right cheekbone in one blow. The pain flared up red hot in his face, clouding his mind for a fraction of a second, but he was able to see past it. He had endured worse sparring with his father.   


He blocked a punch that was aimed for his stomach, just quickly enough so that the wind wasn't knocked out of him, but the force still drove his own hand to the intended target with a little less power, and pain exploded there as well.   


His ultra fast vision was able to pick up Osiris drawing back for another punch. He didn't have time to dodge, so he disengaged his aura and dropped. The startled look on the vampire's face as his fist swished over Trunks' head, throwing him off balance, was priceless.   


"Kamehameha!"   


Trunks looked up and saw a beam shooting from the tired Goten's hands, and Osiris throw up a hand of his own, the kamehameha hitting it and splattering into a thousand streams of golden light.   


His ki is so low, Trunks thought with worry. How the hell did he even fly out here, never mind that blast?   


But he had no time to ponder this, because Osiris was now turning on Goten. Trunks didn't stop to think, he just let anger and instinct take over. He held his hands above his head and his ki gathered into a huge ball.   


"Finish Buster!!" he screamed, and thrust his hands forward and up, earning another look of surprise before the vampire was engulfed in golden energy.   


"Trunks!" Goten yelled, and when he glanced back at his friend, Trunks noticed with anxiety that he wasn't even at super saiyajin anymore. "Here!"   


A small object dropped down to him, and when he caught it, Trunks realized it was half a senzu bean. Goten was popping the other half in his mouth. He quickly followed suit.   


"Alright!" Goten flew down with a tad more energy than before. "I think I can manage now. Ready?"   


Trunks looked with worry from his friend to the dust cloud his attack had left. "But, I only came here because I thought you were dead!"   


Goten shrugged. "As long as we're here, we might as well." then he grinned. "I appreciate it more than I can say Trunks, but after that blast, he's gonna be way to pissed to just let us go. So let's at least give him a good show."   


Trunks didn't need any more words. He let his power drop back to his base stage so that they would be even, and he and Goten placed their arms in the accustomed fusion pose, about to begin.   
  
  


Then a huge wave of ki blasted out from Osiris, knocking them right off their feet, and into the dirt.   
  
  
  
  


Arda was about to tell what he had begun to say, when the huge wave of ki finally got through the haze and reached the Z warrior's minds.   


Gohan, Krillin, and Videl all jumped up from the chairs they had been sitting in. Piccolo's eyes went wide, and Arda stopped in mid word, also wide eyed. Uubu's arms uncrossed and he stood straight, no longer leaning.   


"He's not dead!" Gohan screamed. "Goten and Trunks!"   


That was all any of them needed. Before they could even blink, Videl, Pan, Bulma, and Bura were in the room alone, and the door was swinging wildly on it's hinges.   



	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine:

Looking up from their new vantage point, flat on their backs, the teenagers saw Osiris, dusty but not the least bit harmed, floating inside a globe of electric blue ki. And his power was rising.   


"I will give you two ten seconds to run or power up." the vampire said, his confident smirk replaced with a blank look. "That is all the mercy I give you. But if you run, you had better hide very well. I'll come for you."   


They stood up. Trunks looked at Goten. Goten looked at Trunks. If they had learned nothing else from their fathers, they had learned about honor. And saiyajin pride.   


Running was cowardly. They didn't consider it for a second.   


Trunks looked back up at Osiris. "That ten seconds is the worst mistake you ever made, my friend."   


Osiris didn't look afraid in the least. "Seven seconds now, boy."   


Not wasting another second, they put their arms out in the pose one more time, falling into the perfectly remembered rhythm, even after all these years.   


"Ready?"   


Goten nodded to his friend.   


"Fuuu..." they stepped toward each other.   


Osiris gazed at them. Their ten seconds were up, actually. But he was curious as to what these boys would do to try and save themselves.   


"Sion!" they reached the middle and their arms snapped aside in perfect symmetry.   


"HA!!" back to the middle, their fingers met, and a huge dome of ki sprang almost out of no where, obscuring them from sight.   


But Osiris caught a brief glimpse of two figures becoming one, and that figure suddenly become powerful.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Kakarott!!" Vegeta screamed. Goku's eyes were glazed over, far away. He hadn't moved for close to five minutes. The whole time, Vegeta had been shouting at him.   


Dende was sitting next to Vegeta, a very concerned look on his face as he glanced over Goku for the hundredth time, wondering what had happened.   


"Is shouting really required, Vegeta?" he asked, noticeably wincing at Vegeta's voice. "He's not coming around. I don't have any idea what's happened to him, but that isn't helping."   


"Shut up, namek!" Vegeta growled. "It's not as if your doing anything to help either!"   


"Here, try this!" old Kaio-shin said, and another crystal ball instantly appeared and floated over to Vegeta, Kaio-bit, Dende, and King Kai, who were all watching Goku. In it was a very clear picture of the battle on earth.   


"What good will that do, you old fart!?" Vegeta yelled. He was much more worried about Goku than he intended to let on, and that made him more angry than he usually got anymore. "We're trying to revive Kakarott, not watch that idiot on earth!"   


"Just look into the ball. You'll see." he said with a smile.   


Vegeta, grumbling but curious as to what the old Kai meant, did as he said, and promptly gasped out loud.   


"Kakarott!" he yelled out, mingled with the startled gasps of the others.   


Clearly visible in the crystal ball, a wavering wraith of Goku floated next to Osiris. And it was clear from the way the vampire acted that Goku wasn't visible to him at all.   


"What is going on!?" Vegeta yelled. "How can Kakarott be there and here at the same time!? That's not possible!"   


"It's just astral projection." old Kaio-shin said with a sigh. "An easy enough trick, if you know how. Our vampire friend would be able to see him, though, if he really concentrated."   


"Astral projection?" Vegeta said, confused. "You mean, out of body teleportation?"   


"That's what he means all right!" King Kai said with a smile. "Wow, I didn't know Goku had been training his mind so much! That's a very hard technique for a mortal to learn, especially that fast. It has nothing to do with ki, only with your mind. I wonder how he was able to do it so well?"   


"Perhaps it was brought on when he saw what was happening to Goten?" Dende speculated. "I mean, could extreme emotion have such an effect?"   


King Kai shrugged. "I suppose anything's possible. But that's still amazing! Most gods can't even do that trick."   


"So..." Vegeta began. "Kakarott would be invisible to all mortal eyes?"   


This time Kaio-bit interjected. "Yes, he would, unless a mortal was of a different origin, magical. For instance, I believe his student Uubu may be able to see his spirit faintly, because he is a reincarnated being. And if Osiris were paying attention to anyone other than Goten and Trunks, he could definitely see it. But the only way someone can combat a spirit is to leave their own body, and that I'm certain Osiris won't do, not if Trunks and Goten are around to destroy it once he's out."   


Vegeta nodded, although little of what Kaio-bit had said mattered to him. All he had wanted to know was if Goten and Trunks would be able to see him. Suffice to say that they would not.   


"But what good can he possibly do?" Vegeta asked.   


Kaio-bit was about to answer, but suddenly a bright flash of light filled the crystal, and they all turned their eyes towards it.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris looked with curiosity into the bright globe of light. He had seen something like this before, although he couldn't remember where. It was some sort of power up, at least that much was certain. The amount of ki inside the bubble had skyrocketed from the boy's previous levels. Perhaps it would be enough to give him a real fight, if he kept down to half power or less.   


Glancing down again, he saw that the ki was beginning to recede, into the shape of one fighter.   


So, he thought, it's a fusion technique, not a power up at all.   


The bright light now receded to form an aura, surrounding a teenage boy with spiky black hair, striped with lavender. The boy was wearing a vest with yellow trim and white pants, tied at the calf.   


"Hey, hey, hey!!" he yelled. "Gotenks is back, and badder than ever!" Gotenks flashed a V with two fingers. "Time to do some serious ass kickin'!"   


"What is this?" Osiris said after a pause. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. "I can't decide wether to be annoyed or to laugh."   


Gotenks frowned and showed both middle fingers to the vampire. "Don't worry, you'll be crying soon, asshole, then you won't have to worry about it!"   


One eyebrow raised itself on the vampire's forehead. "You must be joking. With that pitiful energy level of yours?"   


Gotenks only smiled. "Oh, don't worry about that. I've got tons of power, just waiting for me to bring it out!"   


"Well, get it over with already." the vampire said, now a trifle annoyed. "Your ten seconds is long up, you know. Your surviving now on my patience!"   


Without a word, Gotenks' hair immediately flashed gold, his muscles expanded slightly, and his eyes went blue-green. But he didn't stop.   


"HaaaaAAAAAAAA....!!!!" he began to scream, his fists clenched at his sides, muscles knotted in effort. The aura that surrounded him thickened and swirled as his hair began to grow. The energy swirled inward, faster and faster.   


A smile spread across Osiris' face. "Well, well. It seems I will get a fight after all." the complete absence of emotion that had plagued him after being nearly killed by Gohan had edged away as the prospect of a good fight had become more possible, and now it was almost totally eclipsed by expectation.   


But before he got a chance to think further on it, he suddenly noticed the presence of Son Goku's spirit immediately next to him, the feeling of his ki hitting him like a brick wall.   


"What the hell..." he began, and then pain eclipsed his mind.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Vegeta and the gods watched in mixed awe and horror as Goku's spirit literally clamped onto Osiris' head and began to crush.   


"What is he doing!?" Vegeta yelled out. Since the whole thing had started, Vegeta hadn't lowered his voice past a dull roar.   


"He's trying to put as much pain on Osiris' consciousness as possible." Dende said in sudden realization. "Right?"   


King Kai nodded. "He's trying to force him from his body, I think, so that Gotenks can destroy it with no resistance. Then Osiris' spirit will be without a body, much less dangerous, maybe even harmless."   


Vegeta said nothing, just continued to stare in awe at the crystal ball.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku had actually been practicing the art of astral projection for quite some time. But it was hard, and he had only gotten complete control of it just now, brought on by the shock of seeing Goten hurt, he had simply willed himself there.   


He had been able to intrude in the vampire's mind without much trouble, and it had worked like a charm. Seeing someone that was able to break into his trance had apparently startled Osiris so badly that he had stopped sucking the blood out of Goten soon enough to leave him alive.   


What he was doing now was more of a gamble. He didn't know if he could force Osiris from his body, no matter how much pain he put him in, and he certainly didn't know what he would do once the vampire was out.   


But the boys were almost done powering up.   


And at the same second, Osiris' screams stopped.   


You should have been smarter than to get into a psychic battle with a vampire, whoever you are. The voice came in Goku's head.   


Then he felt a huge force act on him, and he was painfully thrust away, so fast that the earth didn't just fade, it disappeared. And he was rocketed back into his body so hard that it threw him and dug a furrow in the dirt.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


the first word he heard when he opened his eyes was a familiar one.   


"Kakarott!" Vegeta yelled, and ran over to the only other pure blooded saiyajin left alive. "What the hell happened!?"   


Goku sat painfully up, and saw the reason for Vegeta's worry. His spirit had been thrown back to his body with such force that when he had reentered it, he had been knocked to the ground and slid for almost twenty feet, leaving a long trench underneath him.   


"Geeze, I've got one hell of a headache." he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "That.... hurt."   


"Will you shut up about your hollow head and tell me what happened!?" Vegeta was practically screaming.   


Goku stopped rubbing his eyes and glanced up. "He's strong, Kami, he's strong." he said, wincing. "As soon as he got over being surprised, he just threw me back like I was a fly."   


Goku stood up, completely ignoring the other's questions for the moment, and walked over to the crystal ball, where he promptly sat back down and watched the fight.   


"I hope those boys are careful." he said with a sigh. 

Gotenks was finished powering up. He stood at level three, looking up at Osiris curiously.   


The vampire was grumbling and cursing while rubbing his head, as if he had a migraine. Since the boys weren't able to see Goku's spirit, they had no idea what had taken place. All they saw was Osiris with a headache.   


"What's wrong with you!?" the fused warrior called up. "My power giving you a headache?" he chuckled.   


Osiris put his hands down with a grimace. "You must be joking. That pathetic power level?"   


Gotenks' smile became a snarl. "I'll show you how pathetic it is."   


"Words won't win this fight for you, you know." the vampire smirked and crossed his arms, looking down at the boys.   


"Very true." Gotenks flew upwards even as the words left his mouth.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Gohan." Uubu began, having to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind. "Are they fighting yet?"   


Gohan shook his head. "Something must be going on, but I can't tell. I don't think they're fighting."   


Gohan and Uubu had quickly outdistanced the others, simply because their higher ki power made them faster, and they were in a hurry to get to the battle field. The ki sensing situation seemed to be getting a little better, and they could sense that Gotenks was the one getting ready to fight Osiris.   


Arda flew along beside the two warriors, arms crossed, staring ahead into the rain that was now coming down in sheets. He had no aura, and didn't seem to be using ki to fly at all. Consequentially, he was the only one who was wet. He hadn't said a word since they started flying, but now he broke the silence.   


"King Kai told me that warriors on this planet tend to value honor above all else." he glanced sidelong at Gohan. "Is that true?"   


The demi saiyajin thought for a second, then nodded. "I guess so."   


Arda nodded his head. "And you find it more honorable to fight enemies one on one, and let them power up, right?"   


Gohan remembered his father allowing Frieza to power up to 100%, almost costing himself the victory, and nodded again.   


"Well, I'm going to ask you to throw all that out the window for this battle."   


Gohan had been staring off into the storm, but now he glanced over at the vampire, wide eyed.   


"What do you mean? Why?"   


"Well, for one thing," Arda began with a sigh, "you can't possibly conceive of how powerful Osiris is at full strength. You beat him when he was fighting me, but he was only at half power then. For another, even if your powers were perfectly even, he's much too fast. Trust me, it's very unpleasant to have your jaw broken by a hand you never saw."   


He turned to look at Gohan again and smiled. "But you should already know that."   


"Yeah." Gohan said shortly.   


"I don't expect you to do it." Arda said. "If honor means that much to you. But I had to at least ask, and let you know what we're in for."   


Gohan nodded slightly, but he said nothing. They were almost at the battle field.   


"How far back are the others?" Uubu asked suddenly.   
  
  


"Pretty far." Gohan said. "But it doesn't matter. The best thing we can do is finish this quickly so the others don't have to get involved."   


"Yes." Arda said. "Your friends are strong, but in this situation, they would only be in the way."   


Gohan looked reproachfully at the vampire. "What about you?" he said, called upon to defend his friends. "As I recall, you didn't fare so well against him yourself... Arda, wasn't it?"   


Arda looked back at him. "Did I say I was going to fight?"   


"What?" Gohan said, startled. "Then why the hell did you come with us!?"   


Soft laughter drifted over, barely audible over the wind. "I'm kidding." he said shortly. "I have a score to settle with Osiris. A number of scores, actually. But I have other... talents that could be of use. If you recall, I did save your life less than an hour ago... Gohan, wasn't it?" he said, smirking as he intentionally mocked the saiyajin.   


Gohan growled. "You're pushing it, you know? This isn't the time."   


Arda put his hands in front of him in a gesture of peace, still smiling. "Calm down. I'm in just as much danger here as you, remember? Probably more." he said, the smile beginning to waver. "You at least have the power to protect yourself. He's quite a bit stronger than me."   


Gohan sighed heavily. "Still, you just show up and already your mocking me?"   


"Sorry." Arda said shortly, crossing his arms again.   


"Hnn." Gohan grunted and turned away.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gotenks was very strong. Probably the strongest of all the people on earth except for Gohan and Uubu. But when he flew at Osiris, he still found himself sailing back towards the earth as a fist as white and as hard as solid marble hit his face faster than the eye could see.   


There was a tremendous crash as the fused warrior hit the ground: feet first. He had managed to right himself on the way down, but a great deal of the cockiness had left his voice. Now he was back where he had started from, slowly standing and looking up at the smiling vampire.   


"Lucky punch!" he called out. "I could have blocked that, but I'm holding back."   


This was, of course, a complete bluff as Gotenks tried to distract the vampire for long enough to think of a sufficient strategy. He had flown as fast as he possibly could, but apparently Osiris was faster.   


"I guess I'll have to lower my power even more." he said in an exasperated sense, mostly to get Gotenks angry. He really had no intention of lowering his power, because then if any of the boy's allies showed up, he would be too low to power up in time to fight. But it was a bit fun taunting the boy.   


"You just keep talking while I start fighting." Gotenks laughed, and flew back up again.   


Osiris' eyes widened a bit with his smile. The boy was trying another frontal assault when the first had already failed? Stupid.   


The fused boys were only feet away, and Osiris drew back his fist with a short sigh.   


His breath stopped suddenly, however, when Gotenks suddenly pulled up, and spit something right in Osiris' face. At first he thought the boy was just mocking him, spitting in his face, but then he realized that this was impossible, because the boy had spit out something as big as he was himself.   


The face of the Kamikaze Ghost had just formed when it crashed into him and exploded.   


He cried out in pain and was driven back several feet by the blast, Gotenks' hysterical laughter following him for the span of seconds that felt like hours.   


"Bastard..." he cursed under his breath. The explosion had caused momentary pain, but no real harm. The real problem was that he was quite suddenly very angry.   


I have let my guard down too many times today, he mentally told himself, his quick vampiric brain managing complex trains if thought in seconds. I have no idea how so many powerful mortals all ended up on one planet, but I have underestimated them for the last time. Now, boy, you will be the first to know the real wrath of the vampire Osiris!!   


His eyes had been closed against the blast, now they snapped open, and he dived through the smoke, smelling Gotenks' warm, mortal scent and feeling his ki, not needing to see the boy to know where he was.   


He swung his open hand, and smiled as it closed around flesh. The boy's laughter was instantly cut off. Osiris guessed he had hit his mark and grabbed the neck.   


He drove straight up, out of the smoke and mist that still lingered from the blast and into the semi-clear air. The rain was still pouring down, dripping off of Osiris like he was made of stone and sizzling as it fell into Gotenks' aura.   


"Let go of me you asshole!" the boy screamed, clawing at Osiris' arm that held him prisoner by his neck. It was useless. He might as well have been clawing at wood.   


"Foolish." Osiris whispered, his face pushed forward only inches from the boy's. "You are strong, young one, but you have no sense. You lack effective fighting style."   


"I'll show you effective fighting style, you piece of shit LET ME GO!!!" Gotenks screamed and began to writhe and kick like a madman.   


Osiris grimaced at the display, then calmly pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into Gotenks' face.   


Gotenks flew back out of Osiris hand from the force of the blow, blood gushing from Kami knew how many facial wounds. But he was strong, as Osiris had said, and tough. Before he had moved twenty yards he stopped himself, and only a fraction of a second passed before he reversed his direction and flew back at his opponent.   


The vampire smirked, prepared long before Gotenks got to him.   


Gotenks was almost on top of Osiris when the boy's vision suddenly seemed to double, and he saw two vampires. He realized his mistake too late and stopped himself right between the two split forms, falling into the trap.   


There was a brief chuckle, and both Osiris' irises began to spin.   


Then the immeasurable pain filled his head, he fell out of any super saiyajin form, and blacked out.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris could have finished off Trunks and Goten right there, but just as Gotenks blacked out, he sensed the closing kis of the three warriors at the head of the pack.   


Gohan, Uubu, and Arda.   


His smile fell, and he let the force that was torturing Gotenks stop, the boy falling, unheeded, to the ground. The two Osirises wordlessly and expressionlessly merged back together into one.   


"So, they're coming back for more." he said quietly to himself, but this time he didn't smile.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku looked impatiently at the large hourglass Kaio-bit had conjured up. It's sand was just over half gone. Three hours to go until he could get back to earth.   


He was even more agitated because the situation with sensing ki had improved a little. Just enough so that they could get vague sense of what was going on outside the frame of the crystal ball, but not quite enough to teleport.   


Goku slammed his fist against the ground in frustration, causing the entire small planet to shake, disturbing everyone but Vegeta, who was sitting silently under a tree, far away from everyone but Goku.   


"Kakarott, I don't recall you ever beating me in the matter of temper, but you sure must be trying." he looked sideways at the other saiyajin. They were sitting away from the gods, in the middle of the field where Gohan had first been given his Mystic ability.   


"I just can't stand it." Goku said. "We're stuck up here helplessly, while everyone else has to fight for their lives! How can you stand it, Vegeta!?"   


The saiyajin prince shrugged. "I was thinking about a hot meal, actually. What good will it do to worry about things beyond our control?"   


Goku looked for a second at Vegeta, then sighed. "I thought I was supposed to be the calm one."   


"Just keep trying, Kakarott." Vegeta smirked and leaned back against the tree.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


In the silent Lower Hells, Morgoth sat silently in wait, staring at the spot where the doorway would appear.   


The ground already was shooting up lightning, and in the flashed he could see the planet that the Golden Moon would appear on. Something was already happening there, apparently. He saw little snatches of a battle in the ray of lightning.   


Three hours, no more.   


And he would put a stop to whatever idiotic little disagreement they had as he ripped their throats out. He would laugh as their blood leaked out onto the soil of their planet, the planet they may even be fighting to save now.   


He reached up and stroked the back of one of the gluttons with one foot long talon, a smile spreading across his face, the pits of fire in each eye glowing a little brighter.   


It was going to be more fun than he had had in years. 


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten:

"They're so far ahead I can't even see them." Krillin said, gazing off into the distance. "I wish they'd realize there are others who aren't quite so fast."   


Piccolo didn't answer, unless a grunt is considered a response.   


"I mean, they are stronger and all, but why can't they wait for a couple seconds? I'm sure Gotenks will be okay for just a little bit longer."   


"He won't." the namek said shortly. "He's already losing."   


Krillin's eyes widened. "Losing like, having a tough time, or losing like he's going to be in extreme pain later?"   


"Losing like he'll be dead in a minute if someone doesn't intervene." Piccolo said dryly.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


The scene was almost a repeat of what had happened before, except Arda was with Gohan and Uubu, and Gotenks was on the ground, now just plain Goten and Trunks, the loss of ki bringing their fusion to a premature halt.   


The vampire sensed them coming first, combining his two halves again and staring off into the distance as the boys fell to the ground and separated. Not long after he sensed them, he could see the pinpoints of light coming at him. Two points of light, three people. One was Arda, still alive, and the other was Gohan.   


"Two birds with one stone, isn't that how the saying goes?" Osiris asked no one, his face a complete mask. "That idiot demi-saiyajin and the idiot vampire at the same time."   


His aura flared around him in a flash.   


Perhaps three seconds had elapsed while he thought and let his ki flare out. They were speeding out of the sky, like Gohan alone had done only hours before, and despite his state of mind, Osiris felt a vague sense of deja vu. He didn't like it t all.   


His heightened senses made the seconds stretch into almost minutes if he chose them to, so he was able to watch them come, study the expressions on their faces, and wonder how they could look so noble and be so incredibly stupid as to throw their lives away.   


Gohan's face was twisted into a mask of absolute vengeful rage, as he felt his brother's rapidly fading ki, now that he was finally close enough to sense it clearly. Osiris permitted himself a brief glance at the ground, and saw that both of the boys had blood trickling from their eyes, noses, and mouths. He wondered briefly how much internal damage his quick blast of vampiric energy had done, then glanced back at Gohan's face.   


The boy was almost beautiful in his rage, which was totally righteous in his heart, seeking revenge for the nearly dead twice over Goten. The vampire cooly calculated the lines of anger that ran down Gohan's face, making it more severe. Then he glanced away.   


Arda he only gave a passing glance at, as he had seen that face many, many times before and each time found less that interested him. His fellow ancient vampire looked somewhat agitated and somewhat annoyed.   


He glanced at Uubu, the last, and was again taken in by the emotions he saw there. The boy was coming here because he had to. There was no desire for revenge or battle in those soft eyes, rather a desire that none of the events of the past day had taken place. Yes, Uubu was looking more and more with each passing millisecond like someone who doesn't want to be in their place at all.   


Then they were in front of him.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


When they landed in the rocks in front of Osiris, he was standing with his arms smoothly crossed, simply staring at them with vague interest, but with malice as an undertone the whole time. It was like someone appreciating a painting seconds before they doused it in gasoline and struck a match to it.   


Gohan nodded to his two companions, and both needed no explanation of what he wanted. They went to pick up the boys, Arda on his right to get Trunks, and Uubu on his left to get Goten.   


He read the boy's mind easily enough, and true to his earlier observations, Uubu was simply thinking over and over, perhaps not consciously, 'I wish I were anywhere but here. Why is this happening?' But wether it was meant or not, it was preventing Osiris from getting anything worthwhile from the boy's head.   


He shifted and tried to read Arda's mind, but realized with a grimace that the older but weaker vampire was blocking him as well. When he tried to access Arda's mind, he got nothing but the image of a locked door.   


They picked up the two boys, and flew away directly to Osiris' back, doing as Gohan wanted and getting the unconscious teenagers away from the battle that was about to erupt.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Why?"   


The vampire was taken back by the sharp question, almost as if Gohan had hit him with a sharp blow. It wasn't that one word, which countless victims had asked him over the centuries, it was the way it was said. Not only in total anger, but confusion as well. Gohan actually wanted to know why he was doing these things.   


He recovered his composure quickly, fixing Gohan with an icy glare that didn't daunt the saiyajin, but made Osiris feel a little better.   


"Why not?" he asked back.   


Gohan's eyes widened in surprise for a second, then narrowed as he shook his head.   


"You're evil, but I can't help feeling sorry for you." Gohan said softly. "You seem to take so much joy in other's pain, but you've denied yourself the real pleasures of life by doing so."   


"Have I?" Osiris smirked. "I believe it's the other way around, young friend. These are the real pleasures of life. Your's are just a shallow mirror of true fulfillment."   


Gohan raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he said. "If you believe that, I feel even more sorry for you. But that won't stop me from killing you."   


Osiris' smirk vanished in a grimace. "No, it may not. But I'll stop you, you can be sure of that."   


Gohan crouched into a fighting stance. "Try me."   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Uubu and Arda stood on a small cliff almost a quarter mile behind Osiris, far enough to be away from the crossfire the battle would certainly produce, but close enough to see, and to rush in if Gohan needed help. Goten and Trunks were side by side on the ground, now not so much unconscious as just passed out from exhaustion. The blood had stopped flowing from their wounds, and the truckles on their faces had dried. But every once in a while, one of them would groan in pain and clutch their middle, just enough to show that Osiris may have done some very bad damage to them.   


"Will Gohan win?" Uubu said, not sure wether he was talking to himself or the vampire next to him. "He can do it, can't he?"   


Arda answered, even though he wasn't sure if the boy was speaking to him. "I think he can. I hope he can." he paused. "If he can't, we're pretty well doomed."   


Uubu nodded slightly. He liked the vampire. It seemed to him that Arda was a lot like himself, only infinitely older.   


"Let's just hope." he said.   


"Yes." Arda agreed.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


The Mystic ability had always been just that to Gohan: mystic. He didn't really understand why it worked, except in the simplest terms. It was like a pipeline into reservoirs of ki that he otherwise would have had to train for decades to bring out. But did that mean that he had the power already, and had just to unleash it, or that the Mystic form itself gave him the power?   


Whichever was the answer, it was really a moot point, anyway. The power was there when he needed it, and that was what counted. It was also wholly unlike the super saiyajin transformation, because it basically had no emotional basis.   


Incidentally, it also overrode his ability to go super saiyajin. Which meant that no matter how much emotion he felt, it wouldn't be of any use to bring out more power. Emotion had served for him just earlier today, but it had only helped him remember how much power he really had and helped him use it. It hadn't given him more like it had in the past.   


As he stared into Osiris' cold eyes, he wondered if the strength that even he had to admit was absolutely phenomenal would be enough to get the job done. Maybe if he took Arda's advice and made sure not to let the vampire power up... but Osiris was somewhere around fifty percent of what he could do, at a guess, and he already almost equaled Gohan.   


"I more than equal you, young saiyajin." Osiris said with a smirk.   


Gohan jerked slightly, wondering if his thoughts had actually just been read.   


"Yes, they have." Osiris' smile widened. "At least that contemptible Arda and the young human were wise enough to guard their thoughts. You simply wear them about you like clothing. I'm surprised some more finely tuned mortals can't hear them. I myself can hardly shut them out."   


Gohan didn't want to hear any more. He simply let his power come out and in a blink, he shot at the vampire.   


Osiris did a quick dodge to the left, getting out of Gohan's way far too easily and quickly for the demi saiyajin's liking. But he still didn't think it would be a problem.   


Then the thought was cut off when a sharp kick landed in his ribs, and at the same time a fist hit the back of his neck. Before the combo move was even really done, the vampire spun and slammed his other foot into Gohan's side at an angle, sending him straight up into the air.   


Osiris smiled for a second, then followed.   


Gohan stopped himself, trying with only marginal success to make the roaring pain vanish. He didn't need a lesson on how easily bones could be broken for the second time today.   


He caught a quick glimpse as Osiris left the ground, and immediately thrust his hand out and sent a blast down to meet the vampire. He knew it wouldn't do much damage, but it would buy him a fraction of a second.   


And that could be all the time he needed.   


Osiris dodged to the side and slapped the ball away, but it did slow him down a bit. Consequentially, when he got to the sky Gohan was ready.   


The demi-saiyajin had seen Osiris fight enough by now, and knew that the vampire relied very heavily on strength and outright attacks, much less on speed. He didn't know how fast his opponent really was, but he had to take a gamble.   


He surrounded himself in his aura, using his ki more for faster flight than for pure power, and did the in air equivalent of taking a step back, causing the punch that had just been aimed at his face to miss him by bare inches. As it did, he swung his own arm, giving the back of Osiris' fist a brisk hit, causing the vampire's momentum to carry him around.   


Before the surprise could hit and Osiris could right himself, Gohan threw a super fast series of kicks into his back, so fast that the two kicks to the lower back, two between the shoulder blades, and one to the neck had connected in less than a second and before the momentum could kick in, sending Osiris flying straight down.   


Gohan smirked as the vampire struck the rock face first, an a huge cloud of dust rose. He put both hands in front of him and let fly with a large blast.   


He realized too late that it was a mistake. A beam of ki shot up, blowing away the dust and meeting his blast head on. And even though his Gohan's ki ball had been rather large, this one was much more powerful.   


So the choice he had to make in the next fraction of a second was to either try to dodge or push back, hoping that he could pour on enough ki to hold the blast at bay.   


He very quickly decided to dodge. But before he could even move, the ball had picked up speed and he was hit by his own blast as well as Osiris'. The vampire was apparently trying for pain rather than efficiency. He could have let the blast carry Gohan up and hopefully into space where he would die, but instead he let it detonate, tearing Gohan's top to shreds and slamming him off into the distance, feeling like he had been run over by quite few trucks.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Uubu stared worriedly off into the distance.   


"Gohan's losing."   


"Not necessarily." Arda replied, though he, too, looked agitated. "It's just one blast, and I'm sure he can take a lot more than that."   


Suddenly a voice came from behind them.   


"We have to help my brother." Goten said quietly but urgently.   


He was standing, his gi in tatters and obviously exhausted, but standing. He had wiped the blood off of his face, and he had a set look of determination that made him look uncannily like his father.   


"Goten, you should rest." Uubu said urgently, looking even more worried about Goten than he had about Gohan. "Gohan can take care of himself. He's the best hope we've got right now."   


The young demi saiyajin shook his head. "I can sense it just as well as you can." he almost growled. It was true, though. The situation on sensing ki had improved a little, just enough so that they could all sense what was happening on the battle field. Not that they liked what they were sensing.   


"We have to help him. He can't do it on his own." Goten said determinedly, and began to stride forward.   


He was caught by a hard, white hand before he took three steps.   


"Goten," Arda said, "Gohan is our only hope right now. We would only get in his way."   


From the simply touch of Arda's hand, Goten realized very quickly something about the vampires' power that would take his brother much longer to discover. The strange force that wasn't ki was blasted into every cell of their being, making them unable to power down fully. Being held in that white hand was like being held in the gears of a machine.   


But the way that power behaved had a weakness, if he could only put his finger on it.   


Though he didn't know it, Goten had just gained a huge amount of respect from Arda. The vampire knew perfectly well what his touch was like, and the fact that the young teenager didn't recoil from it in the least was pretty amazing to him.   


"How do you know?" Goten asked. "How?"   


Arda's hand dropped. "I just do. Gohan is like his father..." then he stopped. "On that note, where the hell is Goku?"   


Neither Uubu nor Goten could answer that.   


"Goku-sensei was only supposed to be gone for a very short time." Uubu said. "Maybe something's wrong?"   


Again, no one could answer.   


Goku was now a total emotional wreck. It seemed that the more calm Vegeta stayed, the more agitated Goku was getting. Vegeta was still sitting in one spot, watching in utter boredom as the other saiyajin paced back and forth, letting out a low snarl now and then that didn't sound menacing so much as severely pissed. Goku's feet had literally worn a path in the grass, exposing dark brown earth.   


"I don't suppose you could stop that anytime soon?" Vegeta asked sarcastically. "We've got at least two hours to go, so why don't you just sit down and wait?"   


Goku didn't answer, or even look up from the ground. He just continued pacing.   


This was hard for him, much harder than for Vegeta. Goku just wasn't used to sitting back and waiting for things to play out. Not unless he knew the outcome, such as when Gohan fought Cell. It irked him beyond belief that he had to just sit here, staring at the ground or into the crystal ball, not able to help his family and friends in any way. He just couldn't stand it.   


Gohan couldn't possibly win, not without a huge helping of luck, and maybe a bit of Osiris' ego (the only emotion the vampire seemed to react to besides rage) in with the bargain. If the vampire stayed at his present level, then there would at least be a chance.   


But if he went to full power, Gohan was dead, pure and simple. There was just no way he could stand against a power so huge.   


"Just hold on for another two hours..." Goku whispered.   


Even more frustrating, was the situation of sensing ki. It had gotten the smallest bit better, almost making him hope that it would keep getting better, and he would be able to teleport. But that was all it had gotten: a little better. Now they would not only be able to see their friends die, but feel it as well. It was just clear enough to tell what was going on, but not enough to use the instant transmission.   


Maddening. Absolutely maddening.   


Goku continued to pace.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris watched with a smirk as the ki ball exploded, sending Gohan careening off into the horizon. He doubted wether the boy could remain fighting after that blast, but it was best to stay prepared, all the same.   


He glanced down at himself as he dusted the black earth and rock dust off of his black gi, looking like a practiced aristocrat or a rich artist, the illusion only broken by his pearly skin and the light saber like ki sword smacking against his hip every time his arm jerked.   


He stood looking off in the direction Gohan had been thrown, still smiling. The boy was tougher than he had first appeared. Much tougher. But that didn't mean that he could take that blast head on. Even if he was still alive and, by some miracle, conscious, there was no way he would be able to continue any kind of fight. Surely...   


But Osiris' smile slowly began to fade. The boy's ki signature was still there, and stable.   


Perhaps there is more to this boy than I thought, he mused, not knowing that Cell had wondered the exact same thing just before he died.   


A brief flare of worry went through his mind. But there was no way the no could not be at least injured.   


So, then, why did he still feel worried?   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Arda was concentrating as hard as possible, listening to the hum of Osiris' thoughts, trying to hear without exerting enough mental power or coming in close enough to be noticed.   


"He's worried." the vampire said shortly, and Goten and Uubu both smiled. "He didn't think Gohan would even survive that blast." he smirked. "But he's not only alive, he's not even hurt. I think Osiris is going to have a little surprise waiting for him when he finds Gohan."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Suddenly, Osiris realized he was being listened to. With an angry growl, he sent a blast of mental energy back through his mind, before Arda could sever the connection or even summon the power to block.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Arda's eyes went wide, and then he let out a startled yell as a ripple of strange power went through the air just in front of his forehead, knocking him backward through the air over ten feet, landing on top of the still unconscious Trunks.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Satisfied that the connection had been broken and then some, Osiris blasted off the ground and flew, without using any ki, so as not to waste his energy, straight toward the area he estimated that Gohan had landed.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Not only was Gohan still alive and conscious, but the blast had done him so little harm that he had been able to right himself and land on his feet.   


He was now crouched behind a tree. There was thick vegetation all around him, a startling contrast to the crater he had just come from, a crater that had been there from Osiris hitting the ground. But he didn't mind the plants at all. They shielded him from sight, so that Osiris wouldn't know precisely where he was, and he wouldn't have to lower his ki at all.   


The vampire seemed to be musing, taking his time in a self satisfied way, which was good, because it gave Gohan a few minutes to think up a strategy.   


Power was almost null in void right now, because Osiris overpowered him too easily. But he was pretty sure that he could still win if he used his speed and stealth rather than a complete frontal attack. But Osiris could still sense his ki, and if he powered down he would be too slow to be stealthy.   


Suddenly he had an idea, and at the same time sensed Osiris' ki signature slowly moving toward him.   


He smiled, and his body began to glow slightly.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Osiris flew as low as he could, scanning the trees below for any sign of the demi-saiyajin. He could sense Gohan's ki down there, and it seemed a bit weaker for taking that ki blast. That was good enough. But there's was something decidedly odd about his ki...   


No matter. Osiris continued to gaze, and soon saw what he was looking for standing behind a tree. There was Gohan, not even looking at him, or apparently even sensing that he was there.   


"Fool." Osiris whispered, and slowly lowered himself.   


Then he suddenly felt strong arms wrap around him from behind, and legs wrap at his knees. The person holding him felt weaker than him, about the same strength as Gohan, but the leverage and position made it impossible to break away.   


He growled and jerked his head around, not bothering to fight and expecting to come face to face with Uubu or Arda, but instead he saw...   


Gohan!?   


"You little bastard!" he yelled at the Gohan below him and the one behind him.   


The little ass must have known some split form technique similar to mine. Little brazen granger... he snarled in his mind, falling into some language he had learned perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years ago.   


The Gohan on the ground had floated upward, and was now on level with him, smiling.   


"I'd like you to be the first to see my new attack, Osiris." both Gohan's laughed together. "It's a real kicker. Just wait."   


The Gohan in front of him cupped his hands behind him, his body turned sideways, end began to gather energy.   


Yet even in his present state of rage, Osiris could sense something very weird about the way the energy felt. It was far to strong for the amount of ki that was gathered. It just felt... wrong.   


Nobody but Gohan and Tenshinhan knew it, but the saiyajin had been studying others attacks quite a bit lately, and he had looked over Tien's Kaikoho most thoroughly of all, striving to understand the principles of it, exactly how the special life energy was mixed with the ki, making the attack u to twice the user's maximum ki level. And he had been adapting them.   


His technique wasn't tested, because if the blast wasn't directed at one particular thing that could take the force of at least half of the energy, just the explosion would destroy the planet, and maybe a few of the surrounding ones as well.   


But that didn't matter. Gohan knew thins could be his last chance to win, and he had to use it.   


The ball of ki behind him was now so huge that it threw everything into gold and white relief, and blocked out the sky behind him.   


"Here you go, you brother killing bastard." Gohan whispered. Then his voice roared.   


"Shin Ka me ha me HA!!!"   


Osiris' vampiric brain was able to slow his vision down, but not make him move faster. Thus, he had a very slow motion view of the wall of gold death coming his way. He didn't even bother to kid himself; the time for such nonsense had long passed, and if he had realized that sooner, he probably wouldn't be in this mess.   


If that wall of ki hit him, he would die. No coming back to life, no near death experience. He would be gone for good. So if he didn't do something right now, it was all over. And he knew of only one thing he could do.   


He sighed as the ball of gold inched closed, now only a foot from his face. He hadn't wanted to do this, because it was so much more sport when he stayed the way he was. But he had no choice.   


The Gohan that was holding his arms and legs dissolved into white light and zoomed back at the Gohan firing the blast. Now he was free, with precious little time to act. The blast was about two inches from his face.   


There was one thing he really could do faster due to his vampiric brain besides slow down his vision, and that was summon his ki.   


All right then, he thought to himself. Full power.   


With the wall of energy almost touching his nose, he opened his mouth and roared, his own wall of ki rushing out.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


On the cliff where standing, all four of the warrior's eyes went wide. Trunks had woken when Arda landed on him, and now was watching the fight with the others. Osiris and Gohan had long been out of visual range, but now they saw the very clear flash of gold, and then what made their eyes go wide.   


A huge dome of electric blue ki, lightning snapping around it, suddenly leapt out as if just appearing from nowhere. The gold Shin Kamehameha that Gohan had thrown, over half a mile wide, was thrown off into space at an angle as if it where nothing. If anyone was looking out the window of a space station, they would see a pillar of gold light fly up into space, and a bubble of blue on the surface of the planet.   


Then the wind hit. The roar was so loud that none of them would have heard even a whisper of the loudest yell possible.   


So none of them were really surprised when Arda's telepathic voice came into their brains, making them glance aside from the task of keeping themselves in one spot, a task that they were losing.   


Gohan's in trouble. As soon as this wind stops, we all have to help right away, or he's dead.   


No would have argued, even if they could.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Piccolo and Krillin were still flying toward the rest of them when the huge wave of ki and wind knocked them out of the air.   


Krillin landed immediately on the forest floor, or what had been the forest floor and was now already reduced to bare rock. He instinctively crouched down low and formed a ki barrier around himself, just able to stay in one place. He couldn't muster one coherent thought after that. The sheer amount of ki roaring around, not to mention the ki in the dome in front of him, hurt to look at or even sense.   


Piccolo landed a bit away from Krillin, also forming a ki shield. But he, unlike the former monk, was able to form one coherent thought in his head before the roar shut it down.   


We're all dead.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan was actively flying forward with all his strength just to keep himself in one spot. His sole good thought was to thank the gods that his Shin Kamehameha had gone up and not back at him. Although he was pretty sure that he was going to die anyway, so it didn't make much of a difference.   


Under the opaque blue globe of ki that contained Osiris, huge cracks had begun to spread in every direction, the fissures opening in the earth with a crack that was audible even over the roar of energy and wind. Gohan noted with fear that they had been driven so deep that even with the bright glow of ki, he couldn't see the bottom. They must be miles and miles deep.   


Then, just as he was wondering how long he was going to be able to survive against this huge furnace of power, he saw something so strange that it took his mind completely off Osiris for a second.   


About a mile beyond Osiris, a pillar of silver and black was becoming clear in thin air, stretching up into the sky. He could faintly see figures moving in it.   


The gateway.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


King Kai, Dende, and Kaio-bit all snapped up in unison, unable to believe what they were sensing.   


Goku was still staring intently into the crystal ball, even though it had gone completely blue and was probably hurting his eyes because it was so bright.   


"Goku!" King Kai yelled, "the gateway to hell! I don't know how, but it's open! The huge amounts of ki being thrown around on earth must have made it come early!"   


Vegeta came suddenly to life, looking just as anxious as Goku. Neither looked at the Kai's or even paused. As one their hair flashed gold, and they dived off of the planet, zooming down to the yellow clouds below Kaio-shin-Kai, the barrier between hell and the rest of other world.   


"The lower hells are just under us, you know." old Kai said, not even looking up from his magazine.   


They all whiled at him, looks of worry on their faces.   


"And you never told them about Morgoth." he said, turning his page.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Morgoth stared happily at the pillar of white light, a pillar that was penetrating every level of hell right now. In mere seconds it would be ready to step through, ready for him to burst into the world of the living again.   


The Hells didn't exist on the same plane of rules as earth and the rest of other world did. The different levels were all located side by side, the lowest levels being just under Kaio-shin-Kai, but once you were inside, they were on top of each other. So this pillar that served as the gateway to the world of the living was penetrating every level of hell right now.   


He smirked and continued to strong the Glutton, though it had long since died from his touch. He could sense someone coming toward him. Two someones, actually. One that was quite powerful, but nothing to him, and the one that he had watched all his last few years here. The one that might have a chance of gving him a halfway decent fight before he began destroying things.   


Son Goku.   



	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven:

The second Goku dived through the gold clouds, the temperature of the air dropped what felt like thirty degrees, and the light in the air dimmed down to almost black. He could tell just by the sudden jerk in Vegeta's ki that he had felt it too. But the change in environment wasn't that new, because hell was always like that. Something else was different.   


This hell was darker, and colder. There were pools of magma all around, and they seemed to be rippling and bubbling as if there were live things in there. There were no mountains, no boulders, or any features like in the hell Goku and Vegeta had both seen. All that was there was a vast expanse of flat grey and black rock, spotted with the strange pools here and there.   


And the place felt utterly empty.   


That made Goku feel very nervous. No section f hell was ever completely empty. He should have been able to at least sense something...   


But he could. Just one. One ki off to the left and in front, about a mile away from how it looked. Right next to the huge pillar of silver and black light that was apparently the gateway back to earth.   


Goku didn't stop to consider all this for more than a second, or even to gauge and feel the ki he was sensing. He was just in far too much of a hurry to do that. He only thought of getting back to earth and helping his friends, and whatever was happening in hell would have to wait.   


Even when Vegeta paused behind him, he didn't wait. He kept flying. At his top speed, it took less than three seconds, before the pillar was almost next to him.   


And then his body froze.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Vegeta sat in the air, frozen in surprise. Was Kakarott blind? Insane?   


The second Vegeta had felt the ki, if you could even call something like that ki, close to the gateway, he had realized what it was. And that was why he was floating there, eyes wide, staring off in the direction Goku had flown.   


Whatever Goku had just gone so stupidly toward was the closest something could come to being purely evil.   


Vegeta had learned in his many years on earth and in space that nothing could really be completely evil. Once you took away everything that was good, such as independent thought, and life itself, you had nothing left. So 'pure evil' was really a state that was not possible to achieve.   


But this was damn close.   


Suddenly he snapped to his senses. Kakarott had gone right at that thing!!   


He cursed under his breath in saiya-go and flew off after Goku in the same direction, knowing that for once he was going to have to save Goku.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


What the hell is going on?!   


Goku couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Could hardly see. But he wasn't in any pain, it was as if he had simply stopped.   


I've taken you out of time for a second, a very cold voice said from below him. It's rather easy once you know how to do it.   


Goku looked down, more with his mind than his eyes, and what little he could see and fell of the thing below him froze his blood.   


It looked like a shadow with eyes. Red eyes that glowed.   


It was in the shape of a humanoid, but taller and broader. It seemed to be clothed in grey and black rags like a robe.   


You don't see me now as you will later, Son Goku. Outside is another world, a whole different way. This is how I am on the other side. But you'll get to see me later. I just had to have a look at you for a second. Size up my competition.   


Goku felt cold inside, just from hearing the things voice. There was no rational basis for his fear, but the thing seemed to blast it into his very being. He had never felt less like the hero of the universe in his life.   


But he was somehow able to force himself back.   


I know you now. And I won't forget you. Whenever you come out, I'll know you.   


Yes, the thing laughed. And I'll know you. But time is short, even when you're not in it. If I don't let you go now, your friend may pass you up.   


Goku felt the freeze leave as suddenly as it had come, and his forward momentum carried him through, a very surprised Vegeta somehow already behind him.   


And then the world had become all a silver light.   
  
  
  
  


The wind of ki was beginning to fie down. The huge dome was retracting back into Osiris, and now that they could move forward, Goten, Trunks, Arda, and Uubu didn't need to speak or even look at each other to know what had to be done.   


Four auras burst to life, and they flew off to help Gohan.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


The aforementioned demi-saiyajin was still floating where he had been, though now he was able to stay in one place without actively trying to fly forward. The blue dome of ki had finally retracted into one glowing figure, a bright electric blue aura surrounding him, bolts of ki lightning flying off and digging trenches in the earth.   


"I haven't had to power up this high to defeat someone before." Osiris said coldly. "Ever. You should feel honored, saiyajin. You are the first to witness the power of a true immortal."   


Gohan didn't say a thing. Even if he had actually had something suitable to say, his throat had completely closed up. This was it. He was going to die, leaving Videl alone and Pan without a father.   


Osiris held out one hand, grinning. It's palm crackled with energy, pointing right toward Gohan. The demi-saiyajin closed his eyes and waited. No amount of dodging or blocking would matter, not against such a huge amount of power. So he waited bravely for the end. He wasn't going to beg for his life, or even try and make a vain attempt to retreat. If he had to die, he was going to die with honor.   


But then Osiris' face suddenly wavered, the smile vanishing. Gohan's eyes opened, surprised that they weren't staring at Enma-sama. The vampire above him was glancing back, at the pillar of silver and black light. He looked troubled.   


"Is that..." Osiris began, but then cut off. He seemed to see or sense something that was making him nervous.   


Then Gohan felt it too. Like two gold stars in a sheet of black velvet, burning through whatever was blocking them from sensing ki. He recognized the two powerful kis at once, and the look of anger vanished in a smile.   


Goku and Vegeta were finally back.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


The first thin Goku noticed when he opened his eyes was how abnormally dark it was. He had been able to see through the crystal ball, of course, but it still struck his brain right away. There were still black clouds covering the entire sky, blotting out the sun.   


The next thing he noticed was the monstrous ki coming from about a mile away. He didn't need anyone to tell him that it was Osiris. And he could sense Gohan next to him, but faintly. Gohan's ki was like a match next to a burning building.   


Goku and Vegeta stood for a second, assessing the situation. Arda was with the rest of the fighters, and they were all on their way. Osiris was, for some reason, not killing Gohan. But they had no idea how long that would last.   


Goku's hair instantly lengthened in a momentary flash, and his ki spiked up. Vegeta's did the same, able to transform in a blink once they were already powered up.   


"Let's go." Goku said. Vegeta nodded, and they took off in a shower of golden light.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Gohan had a huge smile on his face, in complete contrast to the angry and slightly worried look of Osiris.   


"Where did two such powers come from?" the vampire muttered to himself. "I should have noticed something of that magnitude on this planet before now. What the hell is going on?"   


He silently sent out the probe of his mind, trying to pick up any information he could from their thoughts. Almost always he was able to find names and places from people's brains with no trouble, because so few mortals knew the trick of shielding their minds from an intruder.   


The first he encountered, to his disappointment and anxiety, did know the trick, and was completely shielded. The only thing Osiris was able to get from this man was a name, and that was because the man gave it freely, pushing it out with his mind like an offering on a silver platter. Son Goku.   


The vampire's brow wrinkled, causing the marble face to look almost human for a second. Goku. He didn't remember the name at all, much less attach any importance to it, but the feel of the man's mind struck a chord in him, and he couldn't understand why.   


No matter.   


He felt the other, and this one wasn't guarding himself at all. In fact, he seemed to wear his thoughts around him like a cloak, and once listening, Osiris found it hard to shut them out. Vegeta seemed to project his thoughts at people, very strange for someone of his personality. But then, though he was familiar with creatures capable of telepathy, Vegeta had never in his life encountered anyone but Arda who could just delve into the mind at will, and that had been only recently. Hardly enough time to learn that it would be wise to mask himself.   


But listening to him was pointless. Osiris soon realized that the only thing Vegeta was certain about was their destination: Osiris. Which the vampire already knew. Vegeta's mind was swirling, and the vampire was having trouble getting anything useful to him, even if there was something there. Vegeta didn't know how strong gou was for sure, and didn't even know the limits of his own power as any definite.   


"How positively useless." Osiris muttered to himself, then turned back to his present opponent.   


Gohan had been through quite a lot in just the past few hours. He had seen his little brother almost killed twice, and also seen more power thrown around than in the entire time the battle against Frieza had been waged. He had seen all of the earth's fighters present fall easily to a monster who had no real grudge or reason for what he did, just that he didn't want them in his way when the golden moon appeared.   


When he sensed his father and Vegeta coming, Gohan felt a surge of adrenaline, and a spark of hope. All three of them together could win, he was sure of it, and a second was all the two warriors would need to cover the distance between themselves and the battlefield.   


He felt new energy run into him, and he almost laughed right in the face of the furnace of power in front of him.   


If he had waited for just two more seconds to make his first really stupid move of the day, Goku and Vegeta would have been able to intervene. But he had been through a lot, and his reason was a little crooked. And who could blame him, really?   


He didn't wait. He thought to himself in an instant:   


If I can get a good hit in on Osiris, he'll be off guard when dad and Vegeta get here. Then we can hit him with everything we've got, and it'll be over!   


Just as the vampire was turning back to face him, Gohan left the ground.   


He closed the distance.   


And then, he saw the hateful smile spreading across the vampire's lips, and realized, too late to stop his momentum, what he had just done.   


He tried to pull back, and tried to block at the same time. He was sure that Osiris would land one last punch to the face, and shatter his facial bones beyond even senzu repair.   


The vampire's fist looped sown, however, beneath Gohan's crossed arms, it's pearly white color sheathed in electric blue ki, and slid through Gohan's stomach and out the back like a hot knife through butter.   


Gohan's whole world began to tunnel and grow grey instantly. Everything seemed to be moving very slowly, and his vision was already only a tunnel.   


He felt wet blood squirt out in a wave from the front and back, and saw two figures come out of the mist of his vision, just behind the vampire, who's face had lost it's grin and gone back to it's blank scowl.   


Gohan....!   


He heard his father's voice as if through several blankets. Now he could only see a pinpoint, the two glowing golden angels that were his father and the saiyajin prince.   


He drifted, and felt his body released to the ground.   


When he hit, the world filled with pain one last time, then his vision went black. 

In the midst of the lightning and thunder, and the pouring rain that still hadn't let up over this part of the ocean, a single skycar flew in between the long forks of electricity, weaving in and out on it's way home. The person in it was one of the few humans on earth who was crazy enough and had the guts to fly a plane in a storm of this magnitude.   


Marron jerked the wheel to the side, barely avoiding another streak of lightning. It would probably have been quicker to fly by her own power, but her aura wasn't quite strong enough to instantly evaporate this much water, so she thought it would be healthier to stay dry.   


Of course, if the car was hit by lightning, she would have to fly anyway.   


She wasn't a warrior, really. She only sparred with her father occasionally, and then it was really just half-assed sparring, not like the stuff Goku and Vegeta did, where they needed a senzu bean every five minutes. Yet she wasn't weak, either. Krillin, the most powerful human on planet earth, was her father, and her mother was a cyborg. She could fly fairly well, and throw a passable kamehameha or a kienzen if she was pressed, but she still wasn't a warrior.   


Thus she had stayed clean out of the battles.   


There were a few others still waiting for something conclusive to happen. Tenshinhan and Choutzu were still in their cabin in the woods, waiting to see if their help would be needed. They didn't really have much to do with the other Z fighters any more, though they remained on friendly terms, and thus they didn't get involved unless asked or if a situation like Buu cropped up, where it was plain that everyone would die anyway.   


Yamucha was around, most likely somewhere with Puar in the desert, waiting for the same reasons as Tien. Why should he get involved where he wasn't needed? The human Z warriors were very powerful, but if something like this cropped up, they let the ridiculously powerful saiyajin take care of it.   


Uranai Baba was still around, probably in a fort somewhere. She was another who just didn't get involved.   


Yajirobi was still at Korin's tower, and since he knew what was happening, he was probably waiting for a few things to come out of hell before he jumped in to do his part.   


But Marron didn't know this, she only knew that something very bad was going on. And she was determined to at least get to capsule corp., if not home to Kame island. She had to find out somehow who or what was wrong.   


Swerving away from another fork of electricity that threatened to destroy her transportation, she pondered what was going on. She had sensed her father and Gohan fighting something at the Kame house earlier, and that meant her mother must have been fighting as well. But she didn't know if either were alright now. Her mother's ki wasn't able to be sensed, since it was mechanically created, and her fathers was impossible to distinguish. That huge, hostile ki had completely eclipsed everything around it, except for Gohan, who was still just a speck. And now Goku and Vegeta.   


Then she suddenly snapped sharply, jerking the car even though there was no lightning.   


Oh, poor Gohan, the thought ran through her. Poor, poor Gohan.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Goku stopped dead.   


He looked at Osiris, so many emotions running through him at once that he felt like he would explode. Anger, sorrow, resentment...   


His son was impaled on the vampire's arm, blood falling to the ground in a grotesque shower to mix with the now almost gone rain. Osiris had been smiling, but now his face had returned to it's normal mask, a simple scowl of nothing.   


"Gohan!" Goku's voice choked out of him, sounding like it came from somewhere else.   


Osiris shook his arm downward, as if flinging off some filth that clung to it, and Gohan's body slid off, falling to the earth.   


"Gohan..." Goku's words went quiet. He still didn't know what to feel, what to think. This was wrong, completely. Gohan, unlike so many of the other warriors, had never been killed. He had never felt what it was like to have the life slip slowly away, as if going toward an eternal sleep, and then waking up surrounded by souls on the snake way.   


Gohan wasn't meant to be dead yet.   


"You monster..." Goku whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "Why?"   


A very cold laugh penetrated his defenses, and he suddenly knew how to feel all at once.   


"You know, that's exactly what your son asked." Osiris laughed. "Just a few minutes ago, before I killed him."   


Goku's ki began to rise, and even if he had wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to stop it.   


"You..." Goku looked at Osiris, and his eyes seemed to glow. The vampire's smirk faltered, and now he looked grave again. And maybe even a hint frightened.   


"You... I am going to murder you..." Goku said, his voice rumbling out of him in rips and tears. "I am going to rip you into pieces, you vermin."   


"Are you, now?" Osiris said sarcastically, smirking again. But his bravado was gone. He seemed to be playing a part now, only repeating lines that had been first said by someone else.   


Goku didn't even answer.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


Super saiyajin three wasn't like any of the other forms. It's power was strange and radical, much more than seemed possible for any one living being to have. Super saiyajin two was simply a more powerful version of super saiyajin, just literally taking it to the next level. But level three was different. It tapped into something below all that, and pulled out power that you never knew was there.   


But there were complications.   


Goku had found this out while fighting Buu. Kid Buu, to be precise, although he had found out how draining it was much earlier. The complication that really hurt level three was what he called the Wall.   


The Wall was the point where your ki reservoir said, 'okay, shut down before we overload'. It was a safety measure employed by your own body, to prevent too much tapping into the excess ki. He had told Vegeta to give him sixty seconds to power up and he would beat Buu, but something had gone wrong.   


He had powered up. But once he got to the Wall, he stopped. It was like running into a huge rubber band. You pushed, and pushed, and pushed, until eventually you were snapped back. He had snapped back, and his ki had been depleted. Not just depleted, but mostly gone, as if it had just flown out.   


The wall was the problem. You could keep pushing it back, and make yourself have more room before you ran into it, but the amount of training that it required was ridiculous. It simply wasn't worth it. So there had to be a new strategy.   


He had trained his mind, and his body, to ignore the wall. To climb over it, and into the vast power beyond.   


And just a few weeks ago, he had succeeded.   


Goku stared at Osiris, the rage burning him inside. He was still letting his ki rise while the two combatants stared each other down, and Vegeta was looking at him very strangely. When his ki began to draw toward the wall, he willed not to stop, not to heed the warning, not to care about the danger. If there was ever a time to use that dangerous power, it was now. He had to kill this monster if he ever wanted his son back.   


"Stand back Vegeta." Goku said quietly, still letting his ki rise as he floated in midair, not yet letting the aura burst out in full power. He was nearing the wall, and it was time for the jump.   


Vegeta, still wondering what the hell had come over Goku, backed up, and even when he was fifty yards back, he just slowed down. He didn't know what was happening, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. Whatever he was sensing in Goku, he was beginning to be afraid.   


"Now!" Goku yelled, and the muscles of his legs clenched, pulling them into a crouch position. His arms crossed in front of him, obscuring for one moment those eyes that were beginning to burn with an inner power.   


And the aura burst around him, beginning to grow.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Everything's falling apart." Uubu said, staring off ahead. To the lest, the blue dome had vanished, replaced by a rapidly growing point of gold. To the right, things had literally begun to swarm out of the pillar of silver and black that was a gateway to hell.   


"No, we knew this would happen." Trunks said. "The gateway, remember? It's still under control."   


"Besides," Arda said with what sounded like a mix between hope and anxiety. "The thing I feared hasn't come out yet. I'm not foolish enough to hope it won't, but..."   


But everyone knew that he was foolish enough. The tone of his voice was enough to tell then that he was hoping.   


"We can handle it. We're all stronger than the enemies that our dads fought, right?" Goten said hopefully.   


"There are much worse things in there than Cell or Frieza." Arda said blandly. "We're still going to need every bit of help we can get. Now tell me, are there any more warriors on earth, or anyone who's experienced with magic or curses, incantations?"   


"Yes, quite a few people haven't yet turned up." Uubu said. "But how are we going to find them?"   


"Put your hands on my arms." Arda said. "And concentrate. We'll send a mind message. Anyone with any kind of ki or magic should be able to pick it up like that." he snapped his fingers.   


The three teens looked a bit skeptical, either not understanding the point or not believing it would be of much use, but they did what he had asked.   


All at once, their minds connected.   


Uubu was vaguely aware that he was smiling broadly. The feelings he was having... he had never experienced anything like it. He could hear sounds from miles away. He could hear peoples very thoughts, running in an undercurrent just below the sound, from somewhere deeper. And loudest of all, he could hear the thoughts of the three others around him.   


Good Kami! Goten's mind seemed to shout into his own, and the other two's. Can you hear this all the time!?   


Fortunately not, Arda's reply came. It would drive me absolutely mad. It requires effort to listen to thoughts normally. But I just pulled all your minds together with mine, so we're amplified four times what I normally would be, maybe even more.   


Does that mean Osiris can hear us better? Trunks asked, a bit worried.   


Yes, unfortunately. But, here Uubu could have sworn he sensed a mental sort of grin, I doubt very much he's worrying about us when he has Son Goku and Vegeta to take care of.   


All three of the boys smirked.   


Our minds are pulled together, so we can shout together instinctively. Just go with it, and everyone who matters will hear us.   


They all gathered their mental energy, something they wouldn't have even understood alone, but that they could all use like second nature when pulled together. Then they began to call.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


In a small cabin somewhere in the mountains, Tenshinhan was sitting at a wooden table, his fists clenched, all three eyes glued to a spot of nothing about a foot in front of him as he sat and sensed the battles.   


THE GATEWAY IS OPEN!!   


His eyes snapped into focus.   


"Choutzu?" he said softly, even though he knew his friend's telepathic voice like the back of his own hand, and knew that whatever had just gone through his head was definitely not it.   


THE GATEWAY HAS OPENED. EARTH IS IN DANGER. EVERYONE, YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE.   


Tien stood up stiffly. "What the hell..."   


In the other room, Choutzu was floating next to the kitchen counter, pouring something into a glass. Being much more psychic than anyone else on the planet, the combined telepathic voices were enough to be not only audible, but so intense that it was almost painful. When the distress signal went through his head, the glass and pitcher that he was pouring from both shattered like glass bombs.   


HELP, EVERYONE!! THE GATEWAY INTO HELL IS OPEN!!   


"Tien!" he shouted, rushing into the room, where his friend was already standing, looking slightly perplexed. "Tien, the others need our help!"   
  
  
  
  
  
  


In a fort in the middle of the woods, in some unknown part of the world, and old witch was fussing with a crystal ball, which was emitting only static and the occasional splash of sparks.   


"Dratted crystal ball." Baba said in a frustrated tone. "Some kind of interference."   


THE GATEWAY IS OPEN!! EVERYONE'S HELP IS NEEDED!!   


Her eyes suddenly went the size of saucepans.   


"It's open already!?" she yelled. "But it's not time, there should be at least another hour!"   


THE BEINGS IN HELL HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TO COME OUT!!   


Baba jumped onto her crystal ball, muttering curses and making the clouds and sparks disappear with a wave of her hand.   


"I hope they can survive." she muttered as the ball flew away through a nearby window and out of the castle.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


In another cabin, this one in a much warmer climate wood than Tenshinhan and Choutzu's, Juunana-gou was laying on his couch, on his back, staring at the ceiling and gauging the fights by basis of the amount of ki he could sense.   


Then, quite suddenly, the transistor radio he sometimes listened to on boring days crackled into an enormous bray of static, making him cover his ears even though it was sitting on a shelf in the other room. He jumped up and ran into the room, staring at it as is sat there smoking on the shelf.   


There were voices in the static. Goten, Trunks, and Uubu, and one that he had never heard before. All speaking in perfect symmetry.   


"THE DOORWAY INTO HELL HAS OPENED. EVERYONE'S HELP WILL BE NEEDED!!!"   


Juunana-gou quickly grabbed his khaki jacket and ran out the door, not bothering to question the Z warrior's voices coming from his radio. He had figured out long ago that it was better to just listen.   


As he slammed the door to his little house and took off into the air, the radio gave one last bray of static and exploded into fragments.   
  
  
  
  


Elsewhere, others were hearing the call as well. Everyone who heard it could hardly help but answer it. The four warriors had done their job well.   



	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve:

Something very strange was happening at the gateway to hell. No matter what side a creature came out on, they always headed toward the west. Directly away from Goku, Vegeta, and Osiris.

The answer was quite simple, actually. Many of the beings in hell were very powerful when compared to normal humans, and almost all of them were insane. Some of them had done dumb things in their lifetimes, and death times.

But none of them were so stupid as to come anywhere near the three enormous powers they were sensing.

To be perfectly frank, almost every one and every thing that came out of that gateway was scared shitless by the huge power they felt. And they weren't the only ones.

The mental connection severed with a faint yanking sensation, and also a very brief but quite painful moment of the sensation of being ripped in half. But this was only momentary, and within a second the four warriors had opened their eyes, and were seeing the world again.

"Perfect." Arda said shortly. "You all pulled through admirably, not an easy thing the very first time you do a mind meld."

Goten looked questioningly at him. "You said it would be easy, and it was."

"True, true." Arda answered. "But you all did exceptionally well. Much better than I expected. We got a very strong signal through. None of you have any psychic relatives, do you?"

All three of them shook their heads slowly.

Arda shrugged. "Just wondered. But we have a few more important things to worry about right now, I think."

All of them could see and sense the things coming out of hell. 

"We'll need to split up." Arda said. "Otherwise those things are going to get a chance to spread out, and we'll have to hunt for them. Just remember, if you see something that you don't recognize right away, or even if you think you recognize it but you aren't sure, blast it. Don't touch it with your bare skin."

Before they could ask for any kind of clarification, a white aura had blazed around Arda and he had taken off in the general direction of the gate.

For a few seconds none of them said anything. 

"Are you guys sure you want to split up?" Trunks asked, just a bit uneasy.

"No, I most certainly do not want to split up." Uubu said shortly. "But we have to. With all the things coming out of that gate, we're never going to get them all if we stay together."

"Yeah, I guess so." Goten said with a sigh.

"Well…." Trunks began, bug then simply trailed off. "If that's what you guys think needs to be done. But I don't like this at all. 'Don't touch them.' What do you suppose that's all about?"

"Don't know." Uubu said. "And it doesn't really matter. I think it would be much better to be safe than to be sorry."

With that, he took off into the air, and Goten and Trunks followed him. They began to spread out from each other, but they were all going in the same general direction.

Toward hell.

Goku's energy was still rising. His aura had progressed to become a physical wall rather than a veil of energy around him.

It was building up toward the point of no return. Time for the outrush, the end of the power up, and the wall of super saiyajin level three.

Except it wasn't going to happen that way this time. This time he was going to throw the danger out the proverbial window, and he was going to do what had to be done.

Osiris was getting steadily more and more uneasy. If he knew anything about the way energy was supposed to fell in mortals, Goku should be coming to the end of his right now. He should be almost done, from the way the energy was beginning to fold in on itself in his mind, ready for the predictable rush that would most likely blow even him back a few feet.

But Goku's ki wasn't stopping. In fact, it was doing something to itself that he had never felt before, not even in ancient vampires or the beings that were even worse.

Usually, ki was actually visible in the mind, but more in a sense of just knowing it was there, feeling what it would look like. A ki signature was like a sphere of some pliable material filed with electricity, or heat, or some other form of energy. When the being powered up, the sphere would become more and more rigid as more energy was pumped into the same space. It seemed to vibrate slightly. Then, when the extent of their powers had been tapped, the sphere would begin to sort of crumble, and then it would expand in a huge rush. That was when they had finished gathering their energy and were ready to manifest it in a huge aura.

But Goku's energy was still crumbling in on itself. It was still getting stronger, but that wasn't what was so scary. 

It felt like pure destruction. There was no better way to explain it. The energy that was still steadily gathering in Goku's sphere was a danger to Goku himself and anything else that happened to be in the vicinity. 

For one of the few times in his very long life, Osiris was a bit frightened.

He realized that he had inadvertently closed his eyes, and was actually _seeing _the ki sphere in his mind, just behind his vision, as if he could see it but not quite see it, like some vague object in a dream.

There were now not only folds and crumbled parts of the sphere, it seemed to be cracking and tearing.

There were beams of white hot ki shining out, filling his mind.

"I have a feeling that this might turn out badly." The vampire said to himself.

Then the sphere, along with Goku's entire reservoir of ki, blew wide open.

Goten scanned the ground below him, and then also the sky to his left and right. Trunks on one side and Uubu on the other were almost out of sight, nothing more than black dots on either side, far off on the horizon. Every once in a while, a faint flare of ki would tell him that one of them had found some creature and killed it.

He had already seen several strange looking creatures that looked like a cat without legs and long tails. Their mouths opened and revealed teeth as sharp and long/thin as needles, and glazed black eyes were set deep into the side of their heads. He didn't know that they were Morgoth's 'gluttons', but he did know that they would probably be dangerous to anything that found them. A quick blast disposed of them easily enough, but he shuddered to think of those triple rows of teeth sinking a couple inches into his arm.

"So when's something exciting gonna happen?" he said blandly to himself.

Then a hard blow slammed into the back of his neck and he went crashing to the earth.

Trunks was in much the same situation. He had been slowly fling for a good fifteen minutes, but he hadn't seen anything besides the gluttons. He figured that it would only be a matter of time before something bigger or stronger came his way, but he was still disappointed. The way Arda had talked, running off so fast while still going on a mile a minute, he had thought that there would be danger around every turn.

He did understand one thing now, however. One look at the teeth on those gluttons, and he realized why Arda had warned him not to touch anything. They looked wicked sharp.

"This is still boring." He sighed to himself.

He glanced back at the ground, and suddenly a flash of movement caught his eyes.

A figure that he had never seen but was still very familiar from pictures and stories of family and friends stepped into view, with a self satisfied smile and absolutely no look of fear or even any other emotion.

"You." Trunks said softly to himself, but before he could even move a ki blast moving faster than he could see slammed into him and he was smashed to the ground.

Uubu was looking below him with something of a mix between horror and revulsion.

The thing he was looking at was completely clothed in dirty, ragged maroon robes, every part of it concealed except for it's scaly, bony hands. A veil of darkness seemed to surround it, and when it glided by (there was no way to mistake the slow sliding motion as walking), the grass, trees, and plants within about five feet of it withered and died, some of them even bursting into brief flame or embers and then flickering out.

"Kami…" he muttered, not sure what to do or how to do it. He had a momentary thought, but none the less horrifying for it's briefness, that his arm would wither and die if he touched it, like the plants.

"Easily avoidable." He said to himself. He held his hand out, palm downward, and fired a medium sized blast at the thing.

The ball of yellow ki struck the thing, and there was a sizzle as it disappeared and was absorbed into it.

"The hell!?" Uubu screamed, manners that he used even when he was alone momentarily forgotten. Goku had told him about monsters that could absorb ki, but he had never said anything about beings that were impervious and indifferent to it.

The hood of the robe was tilting up at him. Whatever that thing was, his blast had alerted it to his presence.

It left the ground and began to float smoothly up, it's ragged cloak hanging down and obscuring anything it might have had in the way of feet.

Then he heard a sudden cry.

"Kaio-ken!" 

A red blur shot past him somewhere below, and crashed into the thing in the robe. He saw Arda smash a metal pole that was clasped at the end with two gold bands into the things face.

There was a shrieking wail, and then Uubu saw one of the strangest sights he would even see in his life. The thing seemed to change into smoke. It's hands dissolved into vapor, and steam poured out from under it's robe and from the hood.

Then a bundle of shapeless robes hit the ground.

When Uubu had caught his breath (gone more from fright that he wasn't even aware until now the thing had instilled in him), he was finally able to speak clearly and get his racing thoughts in order.

"What _was _that?" he asked the now smiling Arda, who was looking at him with a bit of concern behind his smile.

"That, my friend, was a Dementor. They suck ki like water." Arda said. "It didn't touch you, did it?"

Uubu shook his head. "A Dementor? Those things live in hell?"

Arda nodded. "On some of the lower levels. You have to hit them with something made of a certain type of metal, and it has to have been blessed and had certain spells cast on it. Anything else won't even harm them."

"Is that why you told us not to touch any creatures we didn't recognize? Because it could have been one of those things?"

"Yes, and before you ask, I didn't try to explain because we didn't really have any time, and it's safer this way. There are other things that live in hell that it's safer to just blast. And there are quite a few things I don't know about."

"How do you know all this?" Uubu asked.

"There's no time for that just now." Arda said. "I believe Trunks and Goten are in a bit of a bind, and you'll need to go bail them out."

Uubu's eyes widened a bit. "Why me? You won't even come with me?"

"Someone has to keep after those Dementors." Arda said dryly. "Besides, I'm sure that you can handle it by yourself. You won't need my help." He smirked, and then Uubu's second very strange sight of the day came. The metal pole that Arda was carrying, about six feet long, slightly higher than it's owner, suddenly shrank down to the size of a needle in the vampire's hand. 

Arda stuck the needle into the lapel of his coat like a pin. "They're that way." he pointed off behind Uubu. "They'll be fine if you get to them s…." 

He paused.

"Do you feel that?" the vampire asked, suddenly more quiet and hesitant than he had been. "That huge energy?"

And just like that, Uubu did. He was utterly overwhelmed, and if it hadn't been for the strange way ki signals were working, he never would have missed it in the first place, not even from Other World. It was Goku, and it was indeed huge.

"My Kami…" he muttered.

Then they saw the energy come, and the golden light filled the sky.

Goku was finally unleashing his power.

Uubu and Arda looked into the sky as it filled with golden light. Any trace of black vanished momentarily as the power filled and eclipsed the blackened sky.

There was something wrong. Neither of the two warriors, one old and one young, both standing in silent awe, could put their finger on it, but it was there. Or, maybe something wasn't there.

There was no wind.

Osiris had been struggling, even with all his power, to stay in one place. But the wind and force had suddenly stopped, and been replaced by a golden light that flooded everything. He stood in it, looking straight ahead, and wondering silently what the hell was going on.

He didn't have to wonder for long, however. Because the light filled everything, but it soon began to dim and go back to it's source, just the way any burst of ki would do. But the sudden absence of any wind or force puzzled and slightly worried him. That wasn't what he had expected at all, and he wasn't able to understand it.

He did have one small bit of comfort in the face of this sudden opponent. Vegeta's mind was still completely open, and he could tell that the saiyajin prince was as surprised at this kind of power so suddenly from Goku as he was. That meant Goku wasn't experienced using quite this much power. A small advantage, but he would need every one he got.

And he now knew Goku's name. He heard it for the first time in the very back of Vegeta's mind, as an association, rather than an actual thought. But he also heard the name Kakarott from the same source. While this confused him a bit, he didn't have time to mull over it. Goku was now visible.

The gold light was almost gone. Well, compared to the blinding brightness it had been. He could see the saiyajin's face becoming clear in the light, like a person slowly being lifted out of water. The long mane of hair was shimmering with the Goku's powerful ki even brighter than it had been.

And his eyes had gone a deep, smoldering gold. They burned like the last embers of a dying fire, a fire that might burst to high flames again if it was just stirred a little.

Those two live coals stared out of the last of the golden glow right into Osiris, with an intensity that the vampire had never seen before, and didn't think he would ever see again.

They looked like death.

He floated in the black.

Gohan wasn't sure where he was, or even _if _he was. But he didn't feel pain anymore, and that was something to be thankful for. He had been out for a long time, but he had been vaguely aware of some pretty intense pain from underneath the blanket of unconsciousness. But now that was gone, apparently along with everything else.

"Where am I?"

He didn't even expect to be able to hear himself or to speak, so the sound of his own voice in the vast nothing was quite startling. But being answered was almost enough to give him a heart attack.

"Nowhere. At least, nowhere that I can figure out."

He recognized the voice right away, but he was so surprised at it that he took a second to answer. Mostly because he couldn't think of a thing to say.

"Juuhachi-gou?" he asked, almost whispering. "Is that you?"

"Aren't you a bright one." Krillin's wife replied in her usual dry voice. "I guess Osiris got you too?"

"Uhh… yeah." He said, slightly puzzled. He was now awake and alert enough to feel hard ground under his feet, either rock or hard packed dirt, and cold air around him. He was aware of his own body, and that he didn't feel any pain or fatigue that he should have after a fight.

"Where are we?" Gohan asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." She replied. "We're dead, obviously, but I don't think this is heaven, and you wouldn't be sent to hell."

Gohan mulled over this for a second before attempting to answer. 

"Maybe with the whole mess about the gateway to hell, Enma-sama had to put the dead somewhere else for a while."

Suddenly the demi-saiyajin's eyes were momentarily blinded by what was actually a very dim flare of light, nut looked very bright after the solid blackness.

About four feet away, Juuhachi-gou was revealed in the dim glow of a small ki ball that rested in her palm. Gohan noted with a note of sympathy that, despite her icy facade, she actually looked rather shaken, and her hand was quivering slightly.

Looking around in the dim light of the ki ball, Gohan could see their surroundings ever so slightly. He had been right; the ground was gray rock, flat and featureless as far as the limited illumination would let him see. Juuhachi-gou's face and clothes were dirty with dust from Kami-knew where, and he imagined that he looked the same way.

"Maybe." The cyborg female said. "Maybe that's what happened."

Gohan nodded, looking around still. He saw right away the problem with his theory. For as far as he could see, they were alone in the vast plain of rock. Millions of beings died every minute in the universe, and if this was really a temporary repository for the dead, it was huge. So huge that millions of people could each be far enough apart that they couldn't see or sense each other.

"Something very weird is going on here." Gohan said, to himself and Juuhachi-gou at the same time.

She may have been about to reply, but whatever words she had been about to speak stopped in her throat as she glanced upward. Gohan saw her eyes widen slightly, and he followed her eyes to the sky.

There was a point of light there, and it was growing.

"I'll give you one chance, and one chance only." Goku said, his voice as cold as ice. "Leave right now, and never come back. If you do, I'll be merciful enough to let you live."

Normally, honor and pride didn't really mean a lot to Osiris. He had a huge ego, but what others thought of him wasn't important. In any other situation, he would have taken this opportunity and left, biding his time until he was the stronger fighter, because time was something he had an abundance of, and mortals all got old and weak so fast. He wasn't at all used to having to fight something or someone as strong or stronger than himself.

But the super saiyajin's words burned in him somewhere that hadn't been reached in a very long time. Because they didn't hold the same emotions that were normal for this kind of order. Most beings would have been practically dripping pride and contempt as they said these things. They would have been thinking that they were completely secure in their position, secure that they would win.

Goku's voice held plenty of contempt, but not in quite the same way. And he didn't sound so sure of himself. He didn't sound self righteous or full of pride. He just sounded, in one word, pissed. He sounded like giving Osiris a door out was something he had to do, but didn't want to.

That made him mad. 

That made him absolutely _furious_.

He turned cold eyes on the saiyajin's face, glancing briefly at Vegeta, who looked completely out of place, someone who didn't want to be where he couldn't really help.

"I don't think so. You may just be the only equal challenge I've had in the past thousand years of my life." He smirked in a way that was supposed to be contemptuous, but really just looked like hidden fear. "I will admit that your power is probably equal to mine, but if you think I would back off from a piece of saiyajin trash like you, I believe it will be my pleasant duty to disappoint you."

"I doubt it." Goku said without a trace of a smile.

And in a quick movement that was just within Osiris' visual speed, Goku flashed forward and buried his fist up to two inches past the wrist in the vampire's stomach.

Arda and Uubu tore their gazes away as the golden light in the sky faded.

"We don't have time to stand and look at your sensei's light show." Arda said, as if scolding himself along with Uubu. "Get going. That way." He pointed off in the direction that he had indicated before.

"Right." Uubu said, and took off at top speed. 

Arda stood and stared at the spot in the air where Goku and Osiris were getting ready to fight.

Then he shook his head abruptly and flew off.

Trunks' eyes opened very slightly. His vision was blurred, and he had the worst headache of his life. But that didn't stop his brain from working; he knew that he was in trouble. 

"This was the first one I saw." A deep voice with a slight, implacable accent said from above him. "He was quite easy."

The fingers that had been laced through his belt suddenly released their grip, and Trunks wasn't able to catch himself in time to save his nose from slamming into the dirt. He rolled groggily over and sat up, his head now pounding so bad it was actually making him woozy.

Cell stared at him with cool contempt from his standing position. Trunks could sense several kis nearby, but he couldn't identify any of them. He craned his neck to the left, making his head pound even more, and was able to positively identify some of the others around him from the descriptions his father and friends gave every time the stories were told. 

Clustered together on one side of a large stone were four people, two big, one normal sized, and one small, that he recognized as the Ginyu force. Slightly further to the right were a fat pink creature and a green skinned elf, definitely Zarbon and Dodoria. 

Trunks didn't pay any attention to these six, because they presented no threat. He could sense their kis, and knew that they hadn't really improved from the days when they had fought his father and Goku.

But the two directly behind him were a different story.

Frieza he recognized right away, simply because the ice-jin looked like no other race in the entire universe. But the power level was many times greater than it should have been.

Next to him stood a figure who, except for purple skin and bone armor, looked exactly like his brother. He, too, had a power level far greater than it should have been. Coola wore an expression of smoldering anger, while Frieza wore a smirk that said he was laughing at some inside joke no one else quite understood.

"My, my," Frieza said in a husky yet almost feminine voice. "The son of Vegeta and the son of Goku. How perfectly wonderful and ironic."

At the phrase 'son of Goku', Trunks turned his head in the other direction, and saw a still unconscious Goten on the ground beside him. He spun his head and looked back at Frieza.

"Listen, you stupid bastard," but before he could say another word he was cut off in shock as the ice-jin extended two fingers and pointed them at him.

Trunks was about to block, expecting a blast, but instead a gold ring shot from Frieza's fingers, and then another and another.

Before he realized what was happening, his arms had been immobilized, pinned to the ground by the rings of ki. Another had encompassed both of his ankles. He was completely trapped.

A quick series of popping sound told him that Goten was getting the same treatment from one of the others.

"I would have just told Cell to kill you." Frieza said in a bored tone. "But I want to make sure that the monkey offspring are killed off myself. It's so strangely fitting that both Goku and Vegeta's parents were killed by me, and now their children will be as well. Fitting, don't you think?" he winked at Trunks like they shared a secret.

"Fuck off, lizard boy. Just let me up and I'll show you 'monkey'." Trunks growled, pulling on the ki rings to no avail.

Coola's frown vanished and he smirked slightly. "We have no interest in fighting you two. Just your fathers. A contest with weakling monkeys like yourselves doesn't interest us in the least. But killing you will be an amusing bait for your sires. But if you wish to try to break free, please, be my guest."

Trunks pulled harder than ever on the bands, his hair flashing gold as he struggled to free himself. But the bonds held fast.

Frieza snorted in contempt. "I expected as much."

He and Coola, as if on cue, each raised an arm, one finger extended from a fist.

The ends began t crackle with energy.

Trunks closed his eyes and waited for the end.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Author's Note: In case anyone hasn't noticed, I've been rearranging some of this story, just combining several of the chapters. The story hasn't changed any, I've just combined two chapters into one, except for chapter one. So, with that said, on with the fic.

Chapter Thirteen:

Pain exploded in Osiris' head like a bomb, more pain than he had experienced in a very, very long time. Goku's fist broke through the flesh and then plowed through what was left of his internal organs after two millennia of disuse. Blood flooded in his throat, turning the scream he had been about to let loose into a low gurgle.

The hand extracted as quickly as it had entered, another spray of blood following it. The flesh was already beginning to heal the instant Goku's hand left, but Osiris had no time to even give it a thought before Goku spun a quick three sixty and slammed a booted foot into the back of his head.

The world quickly flipped around and Osiris saw the ground zoom up at him at an incredible rate. He pushed out with every bit of force in his body as fast as he could, using his ultra quick vampire reflexes, and was able to at least get right side up before he slammed into the bare rock.

The impact sent up shock waves, and the vampire plowed through the ground, despite his pain filled efforts to slow himself. Splinters of rock dug into his skin, causing small lacerations that healed almost instantly.

Goku stared down, his reflexes as quick as the vampire's if not quicker. He could sense the huge ki that the vampire still projected even after having a fist plunged into his stomach, and was not at all surprised by it. If Osiris could survive decapitation, he could certainly survive this last attack.

The saiyajin stood in his aura of fierce gold, impervious to the fact that Uubu and Arda had only just now stopped staring and gotten back to the tasks they had been on, and equally impervious to Vegeta's wide eyes gaze. In fact, for the moment, the saiyajin prince seemed relatively forgotten, just part of the scenery, something that Vegeta _very _rarely was, even if he was far weaker. But right now Goku appeared to be far above anything Vegeta had ever dreamed of.

"Come on, bastard." Goku muttered down at Osiris, who could undoubtedly hear him even though he was buried in the ground. A vampire as powerful as Osiris had hearing so acute that they could hear people talking in planes from the ground, so the low whisper should have been loud and clear, but there was no response from below.

__

I couldn't have killed him already…? Goku wondered to himself, but then dismissed the idea. There was no way that it would be that easy. He had caught Osiris off guard once, and he doubted he would be so lucky again. This was probably going to take a while.

"Come OUT!!" Goku yelled down. He lifted hand and quickly fired a blast downward at the hole, not very big, but enough to serve his purpose. And it worked just fine.

As the blast flew down, the vampire flashed up out of the crack in the earth, slapping it out of his way and shooting straight at Goku, very fast for someone that had just had such a blow dealt to them. Goku caught a glimpse of the stomach, and saw that the wound he had inflicted less than thirty seconds ago was already healed to a slow trickle of blood. Not good.

But aside from that, the saiyajin knew he pretty well had the fight, if he had gauged Osiris right. He was very powerful, but he lacked real technique and skill, an almost unavoidable side effect of having no one of your own strength to compete with. He was trying a full frontal attack, the same mistake that had almost cost him the fight with Gohan.

Goku quickly dropped down, sliding under the oncoming fist and then down under the surprised face of the vampire as well. He flipped his legs around, and slammed them home to Osiris' midsection with as much power as he could muster in the awkward position. They connected solidly, and Osiris was sent flying upward.

But he reacted much more quickly this time than he had the last time. As Goku shot after him, he stuck his flat palm out, not even bothering to stop his assent. The super saiyajin suddenly found a rather large ball of white ki slammed into him, and pushing him down.

He oared and pushed back, letting the energy pound forward from every power of his body, and his momentary downward plunge stopped within a second of it's start. Then, almost without any apparent pause, the blast reversed direction and flew right back up.

But something was a bit wrong. Goku was angry with him, yes. In fact, he was furious. But he wasn't using his power to it's maximum capabilities. 

A fist, almost too fast for the vampire to see, drove through the ki blast, and he just had time to move a bit, so that the blow only glanced off his shoulder, causing him to spin away from his own blast that was following Goku.

The ki ball tore past both of them, and off into the sky. Goku wasted no time, but he still wasn't coming with all the power he possessed. That was very strange, and Osiris thought that he might know why.

The vampire drew up one hand and fired another good sized blast at the oncoming saiyajin, but before it had even reached it's target, Goku let off a blast of his own, and pushed it straight back the other way.

Osiris' eyes flew wide, and he shot off to the right, avoiding being hit by his own large blast by mere feet. Instinctively he slipped around again, flying backward a few feet as well, and it was a lucky thing for him. Goku's fist passed right by his head, it's gold energy heating the side of his face.

He stared down, and his eyes locked with the saiyajin's.

__

If I am correct from your attitude, Osiris sent quickly, _I am not your main concern right now. You seem rather…distracted._

This was true. Goku's power was enough to cause Osiris serious damage rather quickly, but he hadn't. it had been close to a full minute since the fight began, but Goku hadn't killed him yet.

__

I'm not by nature very good at lying to myself. Osiris sent when he got no reply but the blank golden stare of fire. _You should have been able to kill me in two hits. Why haven't you?_

Goku didn't send any reply, but he did seem a little shaken. Was it only the vampire's imagination, or had he seen a flicker in those eyes?

__

Perhaps we could talk? He sent, and then realized how cowardly and false that sounded. _I mean, I don't want to die, and you could obviously kill me with so much power. But whatever you are afraid of, you can't deny that I may be able to provide assistance._

Goku finally sent a reply.

__

You're just afraid to die. Once you see an opening, you'll turn and it me with everything you've got.

But despite his words, Goku was drawing his fist back, and Osiris was able to slowly move and float upright.

__

I am very afraid to die. Osiris admitted. _Even after two thousand years. But I have a feeling that whatever is threatening you wouldn't discriminate. Am I correct in thinking that it would kill me as well?_

Goku seemed to hesitate. Some of the fire faded from his eyes, showing the faint residue of blue-green. 

__

Probably. 

Osiris smiled slightly. He had thought as much. 

Of course, what Goku had said was perfectly true. He _would _turn and do his best to kill the saiyajin at the first chance he got. But he had no intention of making the fact known. And if he could use a little mental persuasion to get some information about any potential competition for the golden moon, well, so much the better.

One of his vampiric abilities, one that many vampires never even bothered with, was the powers of persuasion. Anything he said sounded much more reasonable coming from him than it did coming from someone else. And Goku's distracted mental state made him a perfect target, an easy catch in a situation where he normally would have never had a chance.

In other words, he was begging for his life in semi-dignified terms, and because of a few subtle telepathic abilities, he was about to get it.

__

So what or who is it that you're afraid of?

Goku felt a sudden surge of doubt. 

__

Why should I tell you anything at all?

Oh, come on, Osiris sent with the air of a parent coaxing a child. _I thought you would realize the position that we're in. anything that has you worried that much that you're not even using most of your power… well, let's just say that you'll need all the help that you can get._

This was true. That didn't matter to Osiris, however. He was simply marveling at how easy it was to get out of death. He could have run, or perhaps even attacked and had a fighting chance at catching Goku off guard, but he was still slightly curious to see what Goku was so afraid of.

To Osiris' glee, Goku let a mental sigh trickle over.

__

Okay, I'll tell you.

Uubu flew as fast as he could, now that he was pointed in the right direction. He could sense the two huge hostile kis, right next to Goten and Trunks. There were several lower, more subdued kis, but he couldn't identify them. He couldn't really identify any of them, because all of the owners had died long before his birth. But he could tell just from their feel that they weren't good.

__

So it's up to me. Goku-sensei and Vegeta are fighting that Osiris guy, and Arda has to go and make sure none of those Dementors cause any trouble. So unless a few people show up pretty quickly from our telepathic call, it's all up to me.

That didn't shake him up as much as it could have. Goku had told him, in no uncertain terms, that once he was gone, Uubu would be the one in his place. Vegeta would probably still be around, but he was not a leader. He was a loner. Gohan and Goten wouldn't want the responsibility, and Trunks was the same as his father.

"It's going to be up to you, Uubu. I won't be around forever, and when I'm gone I want you to take care of the earth for me."

That was how he had finished. And that was what Uubu intended to do. He was going to protect the earth and his friends.

With a jolt he realized that the group of kis he had been sensing was now visible. It was time to fight.

He steeled himself for a confrontation and flew on.

The smile on Frieza's face widened as he gathered power at the end of his finger for a cutting beam, to pierce the flesh and then the heart of the boy in front of him. It was finally the start of his revenge on Vegeta, and finally, Goku.

"Goodbye, monkey." He said.

And then a boot slammed into the side of his face and sent him flying into a cliff a few football fields away.

"What the…" Coola no more than caught a glimpse of the tanned, mohawked boy before he was given the same treatment and joined Frieza in a pile of rubble.

"Uubu!" Trunks yelled out, and Goten let out a moan as he began to come back around to the world of the living.

"Hey, guys!" Uubu said with a smile, reaching down and yanking the bands of ki off their arms and legs in a few quick jerks, as if the huge ki power was no more than string. Up until then, the two teenagers hadn't really gotten a full picture of how strong Goku's pupil was. Now they did, and they were more surprised than they should have been. He was Majin Buu reincarnated, after all.

"We don't really have time to talk right now." Trunks said quickly. "Apparently, they're the strongest ones here, and Cell knocked me out in one hit. So I don't think that kick will keep them down for long."

"No." Uubu agreed. "See if you can wake Goten up, and I'll try to keep the battle over there."

"Not so fast!" Cell yelled out, and the two boys spun to see a green blur flying at them, much to fast to counter.

"Shit!" Trunks let out a curse, and that was all he had time for.

"Kai-ko-HO!!!"

The shout rang out even faster than Cell's had, and in a flash the green blur was hit by a shower of golden light, and driven back the way it had come. 

Trunks and Uubu's eyes darted from side to side, instinctively checking to see if any of the Ginyus or Frieza's to bodyguards were going to attack, but they all looked as stunned and unprepared as Cell had been. Obviously they hadn't planned any kind of real strategy, and hadn't expected much resistance.

Their fighting instincts satisfied, the two warriors turned and looked behind them.

Tenshinhan, Yamucha, and Choutzu were standing together behind them, and all three wore half smiles that said, yeah, we're in trouble, but that was pretty good. Tien's hands were still in the familiar triangle position.

"Uubu, you go take care of those two." Tien jerked his head toward the rocks, where Frieza and Coola had landed less than ten seconds ago. "We can take care of these. Right Trunks?"

The teenage demi saiyajin gave a self confident smile and a nod. 

Uubu nodded back, and was about to fly when the ice-jin twins exploded with ki.

__

So what is it?

The question came to Goku through the strange language that was almost totally feelings through telepathy, and he felt hesitation again. And not just hesitation, but puzzlement. How was he supposed to explain?

Almost unintentionally, he let one word slip through. He didn't expect any reaction or recognition, and certainly not the kind he got, but the word went through just because, almost like it had a will of it's own.

__

Morgoth.

The effect on the vampire was instant and savage, as if he had just been slapped. The half formed smile vanished from his face, and he suddenly closed his mind off completely.

"_What _did you just say?" Osiris asked, his voice lowered, and even trembling a bit. "Did… did you just say that Morgoth is coming out?"

Goku looked puzzled. "That's what he called himself."

Osiris suddenly went from looking disbelieving and a bit fearful to looking very, very worried. He tried to keep a stony face, but he wasn't able to hide his fear very well.

"But… he's supposed to be locked up. He can't get out…" Osiris seemed to be talking to himself. "Where… wait, are you sure he said Morgoth? You saw Morgoth?!"

Goku was taken back by the sudden fear that was plan on a face that hadn't shown it even when it had been plain that it was facing death. But he wasn't ready to back down at all.

"Of course I'm sure. But who is this Morgoth? Why are you so scared? Did you know him?"

"Not him." Osiris said. "It. And Morgoth was… before my time. All I've heard have been stories."

"Then what is it that's got you so scared!?" Goku shouted. Suddenly, for a reason he couldn't define, this seemed more important than anything.

__

Ask Arda, Osiris sent in telepathy. _He saw it first hand. But if you're smart, you'll run and give up this planet for lost. Even the power of the Golden Moon isn't worth that._

"WHAT IS THIS!!?" Goku yelled. But he didn't even get an answer. Osiris seemed to be completely changed, now very afraid.

"Goku, I don't know if any of your friends will work with me, and once this is over I know I won't work with them, but if Morgoth is coming out…" Osiris paused and ran a hand back over his hair, a gesture that was so totally alien it shook Goku more than any of the words had. "We have to help each other or die. Everything else is on the side until it's over."

Goku had no idea what to say. But he knew what he had to do.

__

Ask Arda. Arda knows.

And that was what he intended to do. Even if it meant leaving Osiris for a while, he had to find out what was going on, and fast.

Something told him that there wasn't much time.

Vegeta finally spoke, startling Osiris and actually making Goku let out a slight cry. They had completely forgotten that he was there.

"Kakarott, HAVE YOU GONE MAD!!?" he screamed, both of the other warriors spinning to stare at him.

"Are you actually going to let him go!? Do you actually believe that he won't turn on us the first chance he sees!?" Vegeta went on, oblivious to the vampire's contemptuous frown, completely focussed on Goku's now startled face. "He must be brainwashing you, or something! You can't actually be listening to this drivel!"

Goku's looked slightly puzzled, but his eyes were wide. Osiris stared at Vegeta maliciously.

"I don't believe you were invited to speak." The vampire said, voice low, eyes narrow. "You seem to believe that you are on an equal playing field in this situation. You're not."

Vegeta now looked back, his own gaze as hate filled as the vampire's. "What?"

A slight smirk curled on Osiris' face, but there was no humor in it. "You needn't worry about my turning on you. I could kill you right now, if I wished. You are nothing, monkey."

Vegeta now looked as if there should be steam curling from his ears. 

"I admit that Goku has risen above the pathetic level of your race, a race that were, even in their best years of their existence, mere galactic vermin. But that doesn't mean that I have any respect for _you._" He said this last word as if he really was talking to vermin, his voice practically dripping with disgust. "You are nothing but an ape."

Vegeta was now seething with rage, and probably would have attacked Osiris himself, except that Goku beat him to it. Before the vampire even saw that he had moved, Goku slammed his elbow into Osiris' neck, and the vampire flew straight to the ground, slamming into the rocks and throwing up a huge cloud of dust and chunks of earth.

The rage dissipated in Vegeta's face, not disappearing but taking a backseat to surprise. 

As the dust began to settle, a blurred shape snapped up, and a very irritated Osiris was back, now standing in front of Goku with Vegeta slightly to his right.

"And what exactly prompted that?" he asked, one eyebrow raised, his mouth twisted down in a snarl. "I believe I didn't say anything against you. Or do you still feel some attachment to the filth of the saiyajin race?"

"Shut up." Goku said coldly. "I don't care what you meant or what you want to say. I'm as much of a saiyajin as Vegeta is, no matter what my power level."

"But you must understand that by rising above your races limitations that you have also risen above them?" Osiris asked, now looking honestly bewildered. 

"That has nothing to do with it." Goku said. "I'm a saiyajin. How would you react if I said all other vampire's were trash?"

"Nearly all of them are." Osiris said, the disgust now back in his voice. "My power is quite exceptional as far as the undead go. Most never live past their hundredth year, and can't even walk in the sunlight. I'm far too strong now to be killed by sun, even if it wasn't for…" here he stopped and smirked slightly, "other reasons, and I'm past two thousand years old. I am the vampire equivalent of what you are to the rest of the saiyajin. Vegeta," here he glanced over at the saiyajin prince, "is to you what Arda is to me. Another who has risen above most limitations, but is still too weak to be really great."

"Fuck off!!" Vegeta screamed. "What do you know of greatness!? I m a prince, and one of the strongest warriors in the universe! You are merely a pirate, just Frieza with more power. So you can take your ideas of greatness and power and shove them up your ass, because I'm getting very, very angry, and if Kakarott doesn't kill you soon then I will!!"

"Will you?" the vampire smiled indulgently. "Please, I would love for you to try."

Frieza and Coola stood in the middle of the bare rock where a pile of rubble had been until their rush of power had blown it all away. They were gazing calmly toward the area where the z fighters and the other enemies were standing. They had both clearly observed Tenshinhan blasting Cell out of the way.

"My, my." Frieza said cooly. "Today just seems to be full of surprise rescues, doesn't it?"

"Indeed." His brother answered. "But we can easily remedy that."

"Yes…" the ice-jin smiled.

The second the flash of ki faded, Uubu shot off from the group, not bothering or needing to say a word. He was the only one present that was powerful enough to deal with the two planet pirates, so he was the one who got to fight them while the three earthlings and two demi-saiyajin (well, one, unless Goten woke up) got to fight the weaker enemies.

His opponents weren't far away. He could actually see them from where he had been standing, and now he was almost on top of them.

He dropped from the sky quickly, landing about ten feet away from where Frieza and Coola were standing, waiting for him.

They stared into each other's eyes, the two evil ones with grins on their faces, Uubu with a blank, cold glare.

A metal pole slammed into the face of one of a group of about ten dementors. The red haired vampire wielding the staff spun away, not pausing to watch the now shapeless cloth of the thing's robe fall to the ground, and hit another of the creatures. This one also fell down.

Arda paused for a second, as the rest of the monsters circled him uncertainly. For the most part, the dementors were completely emotionless creatures, but they were not stupid, and seeing countless numbers of their own kind brought down with single strokes of the strange staff made them a bit hesitant.

"Come on, you ugly fucks." Arda growled. "I don't have all day."

Then he suddenly stopped. He raised his head, as if listening, and began to scan the ki signatures where he had sent the boy just minutes ago, and grimaced.

"They sent him alone?" he muttered to himself. "Why the hell would they do that? I was sure that at least one of them…"

He paused again. 

"I think I may be needed elsewhere." He muttered again. "Uubu's not likely to get help from anywhere else, at least that's for sure. They're all busy with their own trouble."

He glanced back at the dementors. "I guess I'd better hurry this along."

One of the things seemed to be getting ready to come at him.

"Sorry, guys, but I think I have to finish this now. I'll have to have fun with a few of your relatives later."

The dementors all began to creep closer hesitantly.

"Kaio-ken!!"

The vampire suddenly became a blur of red energy, and there were several sharp bangs, like a burst of machine gun fire.

Eight shapeless cloaks hit the ground, some of them smoking, and the red blur was gone, flying toward the group of z warriors who were getting ready to fight a few old enemies.

Vegeta had quite a bit less of a temper than he had in the old days, the days before he had fought alongside and even fused with Goku, but it was still much more than would seem even remotely normal on earth.

He would have fought Osiris right there, if it hadn't been for what began to happen that very second.

There was a roar, and wind suddenly blew up out of nowhere. It was coming from the gateway.

Goku's eyes widened.

"Something's coming out…" he said, almost whispering.

Tenshinhan was cracking his knuckles, a huge smile playing across his face, as he and the other two earthling fighters got ready to help Trunks and get some much deserved payback at the same time.

But he stopped moving completely when he heard it. The smile that had been half formed vanished rapidly from his face, and he was only vaguely aware of the others sensing the same thing he felt and heard. Even their enemies had stopped paying attention and were looking toward hell's gateway with undisguised horror.

They were all feeling it. A power so positively black with evil that it almost hurt to sense it. And the voice….

Arda stopped in mid flight, wincing at the sound, as the voice that traveled not through sound but on some psychic wavelength that anyone could hear lanced through him in the same way it was going through everyone else.

-_It's been long enough. Your time is up, and your squabbles had better be done. Now is my time.-_

At first he wasn't even sure of what he was hearing. This wasn't because he didn't know, but because he didn't want to know. It was happening.

"Shit." He muttered under his breath. "This is very, very bad. Very bad. Very, very bad."

A million curses in just as many different languages, but he couldn't seem to articulate any of them except for what he had just said, over and over and over. 

-_I thought he wouldn't come out…- _his brain intoned. -_I was so sure that when he didn't show up right away…-_

"I have to go to Goku." He said decisively to himself. "at least let him know what he's getting into."

With a look of grim determination, he flew off in a slightly different direction than he had been headed. Toward Goku, the only person who just might be capable of saving them all. 

END OF PART ONE.


	14. Part Two: Chapter One

Part Two: Morgoth the Demon

Chapter One:

With a sense of a snap that was so distinct that it was almost audible, whatever had been clouding over the z warrior's ki sensing ability suddenly gave, opening up like someone whose throat has locked up and suddenly loosened.

And when it did, every one of the z warriors were able to sense _something _coming out of the gateway, moving slowly and deliberately, almost crawling. _Something, _but what was just beyond the reach of the mind. Normally, it was easy to tell what sort of being you were sensing. But this was different. Cloudy, somehow. It was only clear that what they were feeling was evil.

Upon sensing this, each of the z fighters had a different reaction. Mostly it was a completely mental one, but in Vegeta's case, he reacted physically.

He glanced at Goku, and fixed him with an 'I told you so' kind of look, as if scolding the other saiyajin for wasting so much time. Then he began to slowly lower himself toward the ground.

"Vegeta!" Goku screamed down at him. "What are you doing?!"

The saiyajin prince looked back up. "Well, we obviously have to go see what that is, don't we? Or are you just going to take that baka vampire's advice and leave the planet?"

Goku started a bit, then his face set itself again. "We at least have to go together."

Vegeta looked as if he were about to answer, but he stopped suddenly. He wasn't sure why, but he felt… something. It felt like something was wrong.

Whatever it was, Goku and Osiris could feel it as well. Their faces had both suddenly Goku alert, more so than before. The vampire sniffed the air lightly, as if testing the wind.

But before either could tell what it was, Vegeta's eyes went wide.

"Behind you, Kakarott!!"

Uubu floated about twenty feet above the ground, staring in his sensei's direction, his normally handsome tanned face creased and twisted with worry.

What _was _that?

What could feel that evil? 

He didn't have the slightest clue, except for a vague thought that maybe this was what Arda had been talking about, the thing that he had been afraid would come out. It must have been, because Uubu knew one thing for sure. Just from sensing whatever it was, he didn't think that there was anything much worse.

But he had other worries right now.

Frieza and Coola were almost on top of him, slowing down even now, simply floating toward him and around him at a leisurely pace. They looked vaguely amused, a smirk playing across Frieza's features, Coola's face a mask of anger with gleefully hateful eyes.

"A human." Frieza stated blandly. "Just another monkey species, I think. So what is it that you want, monkey? Or did you just want to look at us? Or maybe you've lost your nerve now?"

Uubu glanced angrily at the ice-jin. "I don't suppose you can feel it, can you? No, of course not. Goku-sensei told me about how your species can't sense ki without a scouter."

"Sense what?" Frieza half snarled as his grin vanished. He apparently didn't like to be reminded that any 'monkey' species could do something that he couldn't.

Uubu had to smile just slightly, the ice-jin's annoyance was so comical sounding.

"Oh, I wish you could know. There's no way to explain it."

"The ape is simply stalling for time, Frieza." Coola said coldly. "Let's just kill him."

"Yes. Let's."

Uubu jumped backward quickly, away from the two suddenly very threatening aliens, and pushed out his power, letting his aura flare around him and envelope him. His ki surged everywhere from the center of his body all the way out to his fingertips.

"Come on then." He said softly, and waited.

Goku didn't have time to think, much less wonder what Vegeta's warning meant. He simply reacted on instinct, and did what his reflexes told him to do.

He ducked.

And the black, crackling ball of energy that had been aimed for his head went right over it.

Down at Vegeta.

Vegeta had even less time to think than Goku did, and no matter what he claimed otherwise, he wasn't as quick as the only other full blooded saiyajin.

The ball of ki that was the size of a car slammed into him, and exploded, slamming him down into the rock and burying him.

Once he started running completely on reflex, it was hard for Goku to stop himself, as hard as it is to keep from jumping if someone jumps out and grabs you when you're already scared. So he did the first natural thing that came to him when he saw the ball hit Vegeta. He spun around.

And got his first look at Morgoth in the real world.

The monster stood over six feet tall, dwarfing Osiris and absolutely towering over Goku. His hair, or what appeared to be hair, was past shoulder length and stood up in spikes, very saiyajin like. The face was normal looking, slightly pale skin, a little bony. But the eyes were jet black and shiny, like some kind of oil. In the middle of each a point of fire was visible, looking like it was seen from a great depth.

Morgoth's skin except for the face was jet black, but didn't shine like his eyes did. The body was muscular, but not really bulky. Each hand ended in five foot long talons like fingers. Each foot was like Frieza's, but the same black color as the rest of him. 

He was smiling, revealing a mouth lined in pointed teeth.

"Hello, Son Goku. We meet for the second time, yes?"

Goku didn't reply. Even if he could have thought of something to say, the sudden surge of anger that he was feeling would have completely blocked it from his mind. No enemy had even just walked up and attacked him when his back was turned.

"Speechless?" the strange creature asked with a grin not unlike the one Goku had seen on Super Buu's face. "That's okay. You're probably thinking what a coward I am for attacking while your back was turned, right?" There was a note of amusement in the demon's voice. 

Goku still didn't know what to say. 

"The pure of heart are definitely humorous when they're consumed in their righteous anger, aren't they?" he glanced over at Osiris, like a friend having a good laugh at someone else. "What, nothing to say?"

Osiris was staring at the demon with an expression of utter terror. Part of it was the very large and evil ki coming from Morgoth, but part of it also was just plain fear and exasperation at all of the events of the past few hours. He was beginning to wonder exactly how many more ultra powerful warriors were going to just pop out of the woodwork.

The vampire began to slowly float down and away.

Morgoth crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "Are you running away?"

Osiris replied with only a slight waver to his cold voice. "When one is confronted with certain death, it's usually wisest to retreat and live to fight another day."

Goku could scarcely believe what he was hearing. "You coward! I thought we had an agreement!?" he screamed down, finally finding his voice.

Osiris shook his head and Morgoth laughed softly. 

"We did, Goku." Osiris said, his voice now beginning to quiver noticeably. "But I believe that I'm going to have to back out. Maybe our paths will cross again…" he glanced up at the grinning hellion above them both. "But I somehow doubt it."

And in a flash, he was flying at top speed, away, blindly. 

Goku pushed the rage down inside him, trying to channel it into useful energy. He couldn't be preoccupied with Osiris' cowardice right now. He turned slowly to look Morgoth full in the face.

"You tried to attack me from behind."

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Goku growled in the back of his throat. "You coward."

Now the demon's smile changed to a sneer of contempt. "You value honor above the simplest way to win a battle? My, how very human."

He floated lower and forward, coming within feet of Goku.

"Yes." Goku said coolly. "I value honor. And loyalty. And bravery. Things that people seem to have forgotten anymore."

"Well…," the demon's smile was back, and it was quite horrible looking close up. "You can talk about honor, because in this universe there is honor, and it's okay for those who value it. You can talk about loyalty, because there is loyalty, and even though it is quite a foolish idea, it works for some people."

Morgoth's eyes narrowed just slightly, turning the expression of a mean playground bully to a look of gleeful malice.

"You can talk about bravery, or honesty, or trust, or even love, the most foolish of all, because those things exist and they serve their purpose."

There was a sudden flash of movement, too fast for Goku to block or even react. One of Morgoth's hands (claws?) rose, one talon extended, pointing accusingly. And in a flash it looked like an optical illusion, because Morgoth's talons were about a foot long, but this one seemed longer. Or maybe it was getting longer…

Then Goku felt a searing pain pierce the flesh high on his chest, within bare inches of his heart and lungs. He realized that the claw had gotten longer, in some bizarre technique like Piccolo's arm extension, it had lengthened and hit him.

Blood squirted as it exited through Goku's shoulder, the red liquid bubbling as it hit his energy charged hair and skin.

"Yes, you can talk about all those things." Morgoth's smile widened. "But I talk about doom, Goku. Because in the end, doom is all that really matters."

Vegeta's head pounded.

__

-I feel like I've had a mountain dropped on me.- he thought to himself, then realized that technically he had. He was buried in rock.

Using his ki to blast out of the rubble wouldn't be wise in this situation, mainly because he didn't know the situation. All he knew was that a ki ball the size of a car and very, very powerful had hit him. He wasn't hurt that badly, but he wasn't going to give whoever had hit him get the chance to do what the first ball had been unable to do.

So that meant he had to dig his way out.

He muttered some very colorful language to himself, and began to push his way through the rocks. He was still in super saiyajin three form, so he couldn't have been out for more than a minute, and that was a good thing. But the ki level of super three was not good. It meant that if anyone cared to look for him, he was a very easy target to spot.

Not that it mattered, really. He was already almost out of the rubble.

As he pushed the last rock away, he was just in time to see Morgoth's talon go right through Goku's chest.

Neither Goku nor Morgoth heard the voice until it was right on top of them. And of the two, Goku was the only one who recognized it.

"I hate people who attack me when my BACK IS TURNED!!!" Vegeta screamed, and slammed one super charged punch as hard as he could into one wet looking black eye.

Morgoth didn't cry out in pain or surprise, but he was thrown away from Goku and Vegeta.

Satisfied that he had at least a couple seconds, Vegeta turned and looked at Goku to asses the situation. In other words, to see how badly the other saiyajin was hurt.

Except for a couple very small patches on the shoulders, Goku's entire gi top had gone from blue to a dark, sickly wet purple. But he was conscious despite the blood that was still almost spraying from both wounds.

"Kakarott!" Vegeta yelled, and was at the other saiyajin's side in a second. "How bad is it?"

Goku tried to force a smile, his eyes looking a bit clouded. "I don't think he hit any of the vitals, but if this doesn't stop bleeding in a minute I think I may pass out."

Vegeta sighed. "Is that all? Okay, hold still, because this will hurt…" the saiyajin prince flared a small sized ball of ki on the end of his finger, and without waiting for Goku to realize what he meant to do, he thrust it onto the hole in Goku's chest, effectively burning it shut.

"KAMI!!!" Goku yelled, but it was already done.

"Turn." Vegeta said flatly, but he simply spun Goku around without waiting for the other saiyajin to comply himself. And with another quick yell from Goku, the wound on his back was sealed as well.

"Can you fight?" Vegeta asked after a second had passed.

Goku nodded. His whole left upper body ached and throbbed like a rotten tooth, but he had been able to fight with both his legs broken before, so he figured he could deal with this, at least for now.

A harsh laugh brought them both back to their senses. They had done the stupidest thing possible in a fight; They had completely ignored their enemy.

They both snapped their heads up, and there was Morgoth, floating apparently for some time about thirty feet up, laughing at them.

"Are you finished yet?" he called down. "Because I think it's about time we continue."


	15. Chapter Two

Chapter Two:

Uubu slipped backward through the air, dodging away from the first punch Frieza had aimed at him. It hadn't been particularly hard or fast, as he could see it quite clearly as it sliced through the air in front of him. He wasn't sure if the ice-jin was simply trying to test how fast his opponent was or perhaps trying to feign weakness and put Uubu off guard.

Wither way, Goku's most powerful student did no intend to be beaten.

As Frieza's arm drew through the air in front of him, he reached out deftly and grabbed it. 

The ease with which he was able to catch the ice-jin's arm was alarming, and apparently not just to Uubu. Frieza's face twisted, his eyes going wide in surprise.

"What the… Let go of me, you stupid ape!!"

Uubu didn't answer right away. Then he slowly smiled.

"You're not very strong at all." He said with a slight laugh.

Krillin spun in a quick arc, just barely keeping out of the way of the swiping claw of the dementor that was skulking next to him. He had had the misfortune of being brushed by the thing before, and the sudden drain had been more than enough to tell him that he should stay away from them.

Nearby, Piccolo was performing similar dodges, trying to stay out of the path of the sweeping three clawed hands of the dementors. 

The short former monk glanced to his left, registering the position of the other monster that seemed to be intent on killing him for no reason. It was still a few feet away, apparently not to sure on moving in quickly. Whatever these things were, he thought to himself, at least they could feel doubt. That was something.

Piccolo let out an angry growl, and Krillin turned in time to see that a dementor had it's claws hooked into Piccolo's cape. As he watched, Piccolo yanked the thick weighted cloth over his head, and spin the heavy end into the monster's face, throwing it to the side.

"Krillin!" he called. "These things don't seem to be hurt by ki or by regular punches! We have to retreat!"

"Good idea." Krillin muttered under his breath. But before he could comply, he felt a claw clamp over his neck from the side.

He felt the horrible drain, a few seconds would have been sufficient to kill him. But something very strange began to happen almost instantly, just after a slightly longer time than the former brush had taken.

Under his hair, six dots that had been burned with an incense stick years ago began to suddenly glow with a white hot radiance that almost made his hair ignite. And the thing that had a hold on him let out a squall like thousands of nails being scraped across thousands of blackboards and leapt off of him like he was scalding hot.

"Wha…" he muttered, the dizziness flashing over him in a wave. He heard a soft thump and saw that the thing's dirty robes had fallen in a lump on the ground in front of him, their owner apparently gone. 

He stared down at the pile of rags, fairly speechless. What could have possibly…?

"What the hell was that!?" Piccolo yelled, shattering the vague feeling that had briefly fallen over him. He felt weak, but far from what he thought he would be feeling if one of those things really got a hold of him. It was almost as if it had overdosed on his energy, or something.

But the dots on his head had started to glow; the ones that had been made with a lit incense stick at the Orijin temple…

"Of course…" he muttered. "We all had the protection spells put on us first thing. I should have thought of that before…"

He now noticed that the other dementors were backing away warily from himself and Piccolo. And at the same time, he heard a sound coming through the trees that the monsters seemed to have been hearing for a while. 

Screams, like the screech of the dementors, and faint zapping sounds.

"What could…" Piccolo began, but before he could finish he had already gotten his answer.

First two dementors bolted, screeching, into the small bit of clearing where the fight was taking place. Behind them, a small dot of blackness zipped through the trees and shot a beam of blaring white at the hindmost monster.

When the light hit it, the dementor's shrieks rose to head splitting pitch and then it was gone in a puff of grayish smoke, leaving only it's steaming rags that served as robes.

The small witch on the crystal ball zapped over to the second dementor and Krillin and Piccolo could now recognize Uranai Baba.

"Won't to you any good to run!" she almost seemed to laugh. "I may be old, but I haven't slowed down yet!"

The same beam of light that had hit the other monster shot from her crystal ball, and effectively vaporized the thing while it ran.

The second the beam had disappeared, she turned toward the two warriors and the six apparently now flabbergasted dementors that still surrounded them.

"So, I see you two are still alive!" she said with a slight smirk. She pulled a bag off of her back, and opened it, apparently not concerned in the least about the dementors. She fished around in it for a second, then pulled out something long and orange.

"Here, Piccolo, this should be a little helpful." She tossed it to him, and he was so startled that he only just barely caught it. He looked down at what he held in his hands, and saw that it was Goku's extending bo staff.

"If you hit them with that thing," Baba said, "they can't suck your energy. And Krillin…" she shuffled around in the bag again, and this time pulled out a small ball of what looked like cloth. She tossed them at him, and he snatched them out of the air curiously.

A pair of gloves. They were black, some sort of silky feeling material he couldn't identify. He pulled them on and saw that they fit perfectly. He glanced up at Baba questioningly.

"Those," she pointed down to Krillin's gloved hands, "have so many spells on them that it would take me hours to explain it. But they're basically going to keep these things," she glanced at the still cowering dementors with a grimace, "From sucking any energy out through your hands. So you can punch on them all you want."

"Right on!" Krillin smiled, looking at his hands. 

"Now, if we can finish up here, please." Baba said shortly. "The dementors are starting to get into the town close to here, and I don't want any more damage to be done than has to be."

The two warriors nodded, and then got to work.

Arda stopped in mid flight when he glanced down and saw the scene below him.

"What the hell…?" he muttered. Were Krillin and Piccolo actually _fighting _dementors? And WINNING? 

"I have to see this.." he muttered, Goku forgotten for a second in his mind. He swooped down just in time to see the last of the monsters being dispatched.

Baba watched Piccolo and Krillin fight with a smile of satisfaction. Piccolo would take a little bit of practice before he could really wield that staff, but he was always a very fast learner. And Krillin seemed to be doing just fine now that he could actually touch the dementors. A few punches and he had touched them enough for the protection spells of the monks to take effect, and the things were gone.

"Hey!" she yelled, irritated, as she zapped a dementor that was trying to creep up on her from behind. Now there were only two left. Piccolo was busy breaking whatever the things had in the way of bones on one of them, and Krillin was getting in punches faster than her eyes could follow.

Then two things happened. The last two dementors disappeared at almost the exact same time, and Arda landed next to her.

"Eeep!" she let out a startled yell at the unexpected presence next to her. "Arda, don't DO that!"

Despite his curiosity as to how the hell Krillin and Piccolo were beating the dementors and not losing any of their energy, he smiled at the witch. "Hello, Baba. What's it been, close to two hundred years?"

She smiled back. "Something like that. So may I ask what you're doing here?"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "The same thing you are. I'm trying to keep the bad guys in hell. And trying to lend what little hand I can…" he paused.

"What?"

"You mean you don't know? You haven't sensed it?" now he really did look surprised. 

"I'm no better at sensing ki now than I was a couple hundred years ago, you immortal idiot." She said impatiently. "Just tell me what you're talking about?"

"Morgoth is out. Goku is fighting him right now."

At first there was no reaction, Baba's face was totally blank. "You're joking."

"Afraid not."

"Then what the hell are we doing here fighting dementors!!?" she screamed. "We need to do everything we can!" 

"Woah." He held up one hand. "I have to tell you, even if every ki warrior on the planet got together and went right now, we couldn't help Goku and Vegeta. Ask Krillin and Piccolo. We couldn't help Goku right now."

"I agree." Piccolo said as he and Krillin walked up. "We would probably make things worse, because Goku would be trying to protect us rather than focus on the fight."

"All the same…" Krillin said, sounding hesitant. "I can't help but want to go help Goku out."

"Obviously." Arda said. "I don't even know him very well, and I feel bad leaving him to fight. Even Vegeta. And he beat me up." The vampire grinned slightly. "But think about it. We'd help Goku a lot more by trying to take care of the other… things."

"I know that." Krillin said. "But I still fell bad."

It looked like Arda was about to reply, but he suddenly shut his mouth with a snap, and his eyes narrowed.

"Listen." He said shortly.

Piccolo's eyes widened as well.

Krillin looked slightly confused. "I don't hear…"

But then he did. There was a sound like someone eating dry cereal, getting louder by the second. It seemed to be coming toward them. A crunching, chomping. 

It was getting closer very fast. What had been inaudible only a second ago was now easily heard.

"What is that..?" Krillin muttered.

"I have no idea." Arda answered, frowning. "But it doesn't sound very reassuring."

Just then it happened. 

Straight through a tree, a creature that had never existed on earth, or anywhere outside of hell. It had what looked like the body of a cat, but with no legs. It propelled itself through the wood of the tree and the air alike with a muscular tail that stretched more than twice the length of it's body. In the front were two black circles that were it's eyes, and directly under them was a slash that was nothing so sophisticated as a mouth, lined with long needle teeth.

It seemed to look at them, and reared up, letting out a disgusting chittering noise. 

"What is that thing!?" Arda asked in disgust, looking over at the others. "Since when did this planet have things like that?"

"Since never." Piccolo said, still completely deadpan. 

As the words left his mouth, more began to scurry out from the trees, eating anything I their path. When they reached the edge of the small clearing, they stopped, all making the identical noise.

There looked to be hundreds of them.

"Uhh…" Krillin looked uneasily from one side to the other. "What do we do?"

"We kill them, that's what." Piccolo said.

As if on cue, all the monsters suddenly swarmed in.

As the point of light began to widen, Gohan's feet left the ground and he began to float up toward it. 

"What are you doing!?" Juuhachi-gou yelled. "Gohan, get back down here!"

"We need to see what that light is." He said. "I mean, it's the only thing here, right?"

She sighed, almost growled under her breath. "So that means we just run straight toward it? Are you stupid!?"

Gohan looked back down. "Well, we're already dead. What more could go wrong?"

"Plenty." She muttered, but floated up next to him just the same.

As they started upward, they could see that the light was now close to ten feet across, and that there were shapes moving in it. They looked like people, or at least they were vaguely humanoid and they were moving.

"I wonder what those…" Gohan began.

"Hey!!" a familiar voice suddenly bellowed from the light. "Will you two hurry up, or do you want us to leave you in the dark!!?"

Gohan's eyes widened. "King Kai?" he asked.

"No, it's the easter bunny! OF COURSE IT'S KING KAI!!"

"All right! Come on, Juuhachi-gou!" Gohan smiled. His aura blazed around him and he flew quickly toward the light, android eighteen close behind him.

Once he got right up to it, he could tell that it wasn't just light, it was a lighted doorway. It only looked so blindingly bright because of the complete darkness that surrounded them. Standing in the doorway next to Kaio-sama were Kaio-bit and Dende.

"Come on, kid." King Kai said with a smirk. "We really need to get you back to earth."


	16. Chapter Three

Chapter Three:

Goku growled low. His whole side felt like it was on fire, but it was better that dying from blood loss. And the momentary pain had shot him full of adrenaline, sending the drowsiness that had begun to creep in flying out the window.

"Vegeta, we…" he paused, his breath whistling. "We can't turn our backs even for a second. He'll attack us from behind."

"No, shit." Vegeta replied. "I saw the first time."

Goku nodded, but didn't really think Vegeta understood. The smile on Morgoth's face when he had shoved that talon through Goku's chest…. Well, Goku thought that not only would Morgoth not hesitate to attack from behind, but that he probably _liked _attacking from behind. 

"Are you through flapping your mouths yet? I was hoping for a bit of fun before I destroyed this planet, but if all you're going to do is talk and stand there looking like idiots, I can just kill you now."

They looked up simultaneously and saw Morgoth laughing above them, as if he had just told a joke. Of course in this case the joke was that it wasn't a joke at all.

"Well, come on then." Goku said.

He expected at least some kind of response, and in a sense he did get one, but it wasn't the verbal reply he had thought it would be. Instead Morgoth blurred out, far too fast for him to see, and slammed one balled fist into his face.

Goku barely held back a cry as his cheek and nose bones crunched, blood squirting onto his face. But even in the pain, he didn't let his guard down or stop the fight. He had been in far worse at the hands of the prince who was now fighting at his side.

Goku let his body drop through the air, slipping down and away from Morgoth, and grabbed the monster's foot on his way down. Apparently his opponent wasn't so used to having someone use strategy rather than a frontal attack or a sneak attack, because a slight look of surprise crossed his face and he didn't even resist as Goku flung him straight toward the ground with most of the force he had.

"Out of the way, Kakarott!!"

Goku didn't bother to question, just flew out of the way as fast as he could, and Vegeta sent his own hit down.

"Final Flash!!" 

The gold beam erupted from the prince's hands in a shower of light, slamming downward and pushing the monster straight into the earth. It exploded, sending rock and dirt flying everywhere, vaporizing stone instantly into dust, creating a huge cloud. The energy explosion pushed the two saiyajin far into the air.

As the vibrations of the blast dissipated, Goku and Vegeta exchanged a glance.

"I highly doubt we finished it that quickly." Vegeta breathed heavily as he talked. "We may have done some damage, though."

"I don't know, Vegeta." Goku said slowly. "He hasn't come up. I thought that if he was alive he would have jumped right back in. I have a feeling that being hit like that would make him pretty mad."

Vegeta didn't say anything.

Then they heard a cold voice behind them.

"One thing you should both have learned…" it started, and they both spun around to see Morgoth, barely even scuffed. "Is that the enemy is never dead when the smoke clears."

"Shut UP!!" Vegeta yelled, and he and Goku both thrust their hands out and fired one massive blast straight at the demon. 

The smile never faltering, he stuck out one hand. The blast hit it and reflected off in thousands of different directions, a shower of golden light.

It would have been bad for the saiyajin if that was the sole intention of the attack. But they blurred out together, and appeared behind their opponent. The demon tried to spin, but the most he could do was to get slightly out of the way so that the two blows aimed at him glanced off his side rather than slammed into his back.

Goku kept up with the speed, however, and spun around with his foot out, slamming a roundhouse kick into Morgoth's head. As the force spun him around, Vegeta leapt over them and slammed his foot down, slamming it into Morgoth's midsection.

The demon snarled and grabbed Vegeta's foot, then brought up the other hand, slashing. Vegeta tried to move back, but the long claws still gouged four long, two inch deep furrows into his leg. He pulled his leg back and Morgoth flew back around quickly, already gazing cooly at the two recovering saiyajin.

"You two work quite well together." He said with a slight smile. "This should be even more interesting than I thought."

"If interesting is what you call it when you see your own limbs in a pile next to you, then yes, this will be very interesting." Vegeta snarled. 

Morgoth laughed. "You are quite funny, I'll give you that. Just hearing your pathetic attempts to intimidate me was worth coming out of hell for. But if you don't mind, I'm getting anxious. We should begin again."

"You're really not that strong at all, are you?" Uubu smiled as he held Frieza's fist firmly in his own. "I find it difficult to believe that Goku-sensei was once afraid of you."

Frieza snarled. "For your information monkey, I put hardly any force behind that punch. And you're forgetting something." He smiled.

Just as the smile curved on Frieza's face, a fist collided with the back of Uubu's head hard, causing him to release his grip and drop his guard in pain.

"There are two of us." Frieza laughed, and drove his own fist into Uubu's midsection, doubling the boy over so Coola was visible behind him. Then Frieza clamped his hands together and slammed them into the boy's spine, sending him plummeting toward the earth.

He righted himself just before he hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and spreading large cracks through the rock. Glancing up, he saw the two ice-jin waiting for him, arms crossed in identical stance.

"I let my guard down briefly." He said standing up. "Goku-sensei would never make such a mistake. I have to do better." He smirked slightly and wiped a small trickle of blood from his chin. "I will."

He shot back up into the air as quickly as he could, taking his opponents by surprise. His right fist hit Frieza's face solidly, and without pausing he spun and slammed his foot into Coola's jaw. He continued his rotation and began to punch as quickly as possible into Frieza's midsection, landing a fast succession of five blows and delivering a quick uppercut that sent the ice-jin flying.

He turned and saw that he had taken slightly too much time and that Coola was ready for him. He swung at the neck, but Coola blocked it easily, and countered with a swift right hook that knocked Uubu back on his heels, and then a hard knee to the face. Blood flew from the boy's mouth and he fell slightly. But before he could even recover he sensed a large amount of ki gathering behind him. 

Frieza smiled as the death ball grew above him. "You've bitten of a bit more than you can chew, boy? Well, it's too late to take it back now. Try this one on for size. Here!" he screamed and launched the huge ball of energy, now enormous in size, down at Uubu.

The boy had almost no time to react. Dodging would be futile, as this attack was designed to destroy planets. If he moved, the ball would bore down to the center of the earth and explode.

So he counterattacked.

"Ka me ha me ha!!" he cupped his hands behind him, and the brought them forward, releasing a huge beam of white ki with nearly all of his strength behind it. It collided with the death ball and both stopped cold, sparks and lightning bolts of ki crackling and snapping, digging trenches wherever they hit the ground.

Coola immediately flew next to Frieza, and lent his aid in pushing the ball down.

Uubu immediately felt his control of the blast beginning to slip. He poured on all of his power, his face set grim in concentrated lines, looking sharp and hardened in the white and gold glow of the massive ki barrage. They were stuck at a complete standstill. If he didn't do something, it was going to be a simple decision of who would run out of energy first. 

And in a two on one battle, he was pretty sure of who it would be.

-_what can I do?- _ he asked himself frantically. But no answer came. Was there anything?

Then it suddenly came to him.

-_Goku-sensei said that Choutzu and Tenshinhan are telepaths, and I know Arda must be with the mind trick we did earlier. Maybe if I yell for help with my mind, one of them will hear me!-_

So he did. He knew well enough how thoughts worked, and knew that straight feeling got through better than words. So he tried to feel calm even in the raging ki battle, and yelled with all his mental force, sending a feeling of desperation. A feeling that he needed help.

And quite a few people picked it up.

Choutzu had already taken out both Zarbon and Dodoria with his psychic powers. As long as he could concentrate, it was relatively easy to give someone a heart attack. But the problem was, he had never been that great at concentration, and it was even harder when you were being attacked from all sides.

So he was mostly trying to use his ki abilities to keep the Ginyu force away from him for long enough to get rid of at least one of them. But it was hard. Stupid as some of them seemed to be, they weren't entirely, and they had seen what he could do. So one of them sent a blast his way every few seconds to keep from being killed.

Of course his heart attack ability had no use on Cell, the strongest of their enemies who was now fighting Trunks. Tien and Yamucha had their hands full with the Ginyu force, who seemed to be very much stronger than before, and Goten was still sick and dizzy from blood loss and being knocked out quite a few times, so he simply helped where he could.

Choutzu tried to keep out of the way as much as he could, because though he was strong enough to easily pick up a car and hurl it out of earth's orbit, he couldn't really help the others in the area of ki. They were simply too strong. But he had gotten a few good licks on Jiece, and he had saved Yamucha from a pretty good kick by Taiyo-ken-ing Recoome. 

But all in all he was out of the main flow of things and trying to concentrate. So he heard Uubu's mental yell first. A second later, Tien's head snapped up just slightly enough for Choutzu to see that he heard it too.

-_Tien, did you hear that?- _he sent telepathically. 

-_yeah, I did. But what can we do about it? We're stuck here until we kill them or they kill us.-_

Choutzu sighed mentally. _-I know. Hopefully someone else can hear it, too.-_

Piccolo and Arda both had staffs, so knocking the Gluttons out of the air was almost like baseball. 

They were fast, but nothing close to the z fighters' speed. The only problem was that there was hundreds of them swarming around at once, and you almost had to guard all sides at the same time. 

For Krillin it was more like target practice, or a game he used to play with Goku when they were kids and later when he had helped to train Gohan before the trip to namek. Basically, one person threw rocks at the other as fast as they could, and the other had to either dodge them or blast them out of the air. If he hadn't been in danger of being chewed to pieces, it almost would have been fun.

"How many of these things can there be!?" he yelled in exasperation. "We must've killed a hundred in the last five seconds, but they keep coming!"

"Who knows?" Piccolo growled. "But as long as they do keep coming, we can keep killing them." He slammed the bo staff into another of the little monsters, sending it flying, squealing, into a tree where it splattered into a sickly gray slime.

Baba floated off to one side, a magical shield protecting her from the Gluttons that flooded the clearing. Every once in a while she would zap a few of the swarm with her crystal ball, but mostly she saw that the three warriors had it well under control and kept out of it.

Then Uubu's mental yell came screaming at them, and Piccolo and Arda both paused. It was the psychic equivalent to someone screaming in their ear.

One of the Gluttons sank it's needle teeth into Arda's shoulder, and he yelled slightly in pain.

"Little bastard." He muttered, and in a second his pupils spun briefly, and the thing burst apart in flames.

Piccolo wasn't so lucky. One of the little creatures came by at just the right angle and at a very high speed. It hooked into the flesh of the calf, and tore Piccolo's whole lower leg clean off.

The namek looked down at the stump of his leg, teeth grinding in anger and pain. "That's IT!" he almost screamed.

The other three didn't need anyone to tell them what to do. Even Arda, who didn't know Piccolo, could hear the tone of the voice perfectly. It said Get The Hell Away.

Baba, Arda, and Krillin took off at top speed upward and to the left, putting distance between them and Piccolo quickly. 

In the clearing, seven of the creatures had already latched onto Piccolo. He didn't appear to notice. His muscles bulged, and he screamed.

The three in the air suddenly saw a blinding flash, and a huge pillar of ki went up into the sky with a roar, spreading outward and completely engulfing the clearing, and everything else almost up to them. 

"My god…" Arda muttered. "What power."

Piccolo stopped surging his ki. The remainder shot up off the planet, where it's bright beam of travel was easily visible from space.

A few charred husks of the things still hung on Piccolo's body, but that was all. The rest had been completely vaporized, along with everything else that the huge blast had touched.

Krillin and Arda touched down next to him a second later, followed closely by Baba on her crystal ball.

"I guess that did the trick!" Krillin laughed.

Piccolo smiled a bit, and with a grunt of effort, a new lower leg regenerated from the stump.

Ironically, Uubu did get help, but not until a bit later, and not from any of these four who heard him. And he got himself out of his own predicament.

Uubu knew he had to at least try to do something, before his ki was completely exhausted. If he just sat here and waited for help, he would die, plain and simple.

Normally, Uubu was not violent by nature at all. He loved the martial arts and he loved to spar, but he hated fighting. Which was actually a good thing, because one of the chief things Goku had taught him was that it was always best to solve problems without fighting.

The fact that his entire planet could be gone in a flash because of these two monsters, these two who his sensei could beat any day, made him angry. They were against everything he had been taught about how precious life was, everything that Goku had striven to teach him. And he couldn't just let them win.

In a rush of adrenaline and desperation, he hatched a plan. A plan that just could work, if he did it right now, while he still had some ki left. He could at least get himself out of this current mess.

With a burst of speed, he stopped the ki onslaught and dodged directly under the blast. As it swiftly began to move earthward, he charged his own.

"Ka me ha me ha!!" 

He thrust his cupped hands forward, firing into the huge ball of ki at an angle. It worked just the way he wanted it to. Pushing it the way it was already going, just changing it's motion a little, the blast diverted away from the earth and shot off at a 45 degree angle into the sky and off into space where, strangely enough, it collided with the huge beam Piccolo had just shot up into the sky, exploding in a huge ball of orange light that lit up the black sky for just a minute.

He fell to the ground, utterly spent. He didn't know what good it had done, but he had at least saved the earth from blowing up for that second.

But now he was worn out, and the two ice-jin, though slightly tired, were far from done.

In the middle of a desert miles and miles from the battles, a lone figure sat on a rock and monitored what was going on.

He had heard Uubu's cry for help, but ignored it in favor of monitoring Goku's fight with Morgoth. But now he turned his thought to it again. The boy was strong. Not as strong as he was, but still pretty good. So what could be causing him so much trouble?

Quickly scanning the minds of Uubu and his two opponents, the figure got the answer he wanted easily enough. A smile curved slowly across his face.

"Well, if it isn't Frieza and Coola. The heads of that pitiful Cold empire from so many hears ago."

He had run across the planet pirates long ago, when the Cold empire had really been to small to be called an empire at all. He had let them live for his own amusement, but they had mocked him, and he didn't like either of their attitudes of complete superiority.

"So it comes to this once again." Osiris grinned, his fangs gleaming. "I believe I may pay those two a visit now, before I vacate this mudball."

His aura flaring around him, Osiris took off for Uubu and the two ice-jin.


	17. Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

Uubu fell to one knee, breathing so hard that it hurt, desperately trying to force oxygen into his tired body.

He had saved the earth from being destroyed in that instant along with himself, but how he was going to keep from being killed now was beyond his ability to comprehend. He had used far too much ki to be effective in a battle for quite a while now.

He stared down at the dirt, still trying to pump air into his lungs, which were stubbornly refusing to hold it for more than a second before he had to take another whooping breath. He wondered briefly if it was possible to hurt oneself by overusing ones ki. It was very likely that he had done it.

"This is bad…" he muttered.

"For you, yes." Frieza chuckled as he landed about ten yards from the exhausted boy. His brother landed behind him silently.

"I was a bit surprised by your power." The ice-jin said in a low, mocking tone. "But now I see that you must have poured all of your energy into that last attack. It's actually a little disappointing. I was hoping you would last a bit longer than this."

Uubu gritted his teeth and said nothing. He was in to much pain to reply, the grinding feeling in his stomach assuring him that he had definitely damaged himself.

"Well, if you have nothing to say…" Frieza crossed his arms and smiled.

"Shut up and finish the pest, Frieza." Coola said suddenly. "Why are you wasting time taunting the pitiful thing when we should be going after Goku?"

Frieza turned back angrily. "I'll do what I want! If I want to let the monkey live a little longer, then I will! You can't stop me!" he added, sounding almost like a child.

"We don't have time for this." Coola's eyes narrowed. "You're always such a child. I'll do it."

The ice-jin held out one fist, first finger extended, pointing at Uubu's heart.

Frieza grabbed his wrist and pulled it back.

"I said I would kill him when I'm ready!" he yelled hotly, now looking angrily into his brother's face. "That means you don't lift a finger until _I say so_!!"

Uubu looked back and forth between the two, amazed in spite of the pain. He couldn't believe this sudden break of luck. If those two kept at it for long enough, he might be able to sneak away in one piece.

But his hopes sank back into frustration when Coola turned his face disgustedly away. "Do what you want." He said with a sneer. "I could care less. But while you waste your time playing with this little thing, I'll be off settling my score with Goku. You can follow when you wish, and if you're lucky, there'll be something left for you."

Coola made as if to take off, and Frieza glanced nervously back at Uubu.

The boy was sure his life was over. But then he sensed it, and saw an electric blue streak appear in the sky.

Frieza and Coola didn't sense the huge ki, but they did see the aura speeding toward them. It was moving very, very fast, though, and before anyone had time to do more than widen their eyes, Osiris hit the ground in front of Coola feet first, sending cracks radiating out, his aura so intense that it melted the rock under his feet.

"What the…" Coola began, but he never got any further. Osiris smiled maliciously, and reached up swiftly with one marble white hand. Before the ice-jin even finished his exclamation, his throat had been ripped out.

Blood spouted from the place where the front of the changeling's neck had been, and his eyes went wide in an almost comic expression of surprise, his hands flying up and clawing at the wound. Osiris' smile only widened, and the irises of his eyes began to spin.

Coola sank to his knees, and as his legs touched the ground his skin began to bubble with some unseen force. His hands continued to clutch at his ruined throat, and he managed to choke out one gargled syllable.

"_Please…_"

Then his entire body exploded in a ball of fire. The huge flame was out the instant the air hit it, but Uubu saw in horrible clarity that bits of burning flesh were dropping out of the air and hitting the rock on the ground with sickening wet slapping sounds.

Frieza screamed out.

"No, please, it was all my brother and my father, never me!" he began to back away, his hands flailing in front of him, as the vampire began to advance. "I never would have said a word behind your back, Osiris-sama!"

"Shut up." The vampire said coldly, the smile never faltering. Frieza's cry for mercy stopped.

Now they were standing face to face.

"I'm not stupid, Frieza." Osiris said. "I keep a clearer memory of our exchanges than you seem to. And even if what you said was true, I would kill you anyway."

Frieza let out one more scream, this one of anger as well as terror. Then Osiris had him by the throat and lifted him into the air.

The vampire's grin spread apart, showing two fangs. As Uubu looked on, the two teeth seemed to grow slightly. Then they plunged into Frieza's neck.

It was only in the movies that vampires sprayed blood and tore savagely as they fed on their victim. In real life, the increasingly terrified boy noted from his position nearby, Osiris didn't spill a drop. It was actually almost anti-climatic. Frieza struggled wildly for a few seconds, choked cries coming forth. Then he began to weaken, and finally, went still.

It had taken about thirty seconds, in all.

Osiris kept drinking for another ten or so, then pulled his mouth abruptly away from Frieza's body. A very thin trickle of dark red, almost purple blood ran down from the right corner of his mouth. He wiped it away absently with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Almost too easy." He said, and dropped the corpse into the dirt.

Then he turned to Uubu.

Goku desperately tried to summon more power. Keeping the full energy of super saiyajin three maintained was draining his ki away rapidly, and he was beginning to feel the uncomfortable pulling sensation in his chest that meant he was edging ever closer to the breaking point.

Vegeta was using only the normal amount of power that the form required. Quite a lot, but not near what Goku was having to do. Vegeta would have done it if he could, but he simply couldn't raise the energy. Goku was at a point that the gods didn't even dream of. If he were to self destruct, he would probably destroy not only the earth, but most of the surrounding galaxy as well.

If it had been five years ago, Vegeta would have been furious with jealousy to the point where it affected his fighting ability. But now he felt only a twinge of that old emotion. He had been changed during his years on earth.

Now all he wanted was to be Goku's equal, and help at the moment. Because things were looking pretty grim.

Goku was breathing slightly hard, because of how much ki the full level three was requiring. But he could still fight for quite a while. And Vegeta felt fine, not even bruised from being thrown into a mountain. But the problem was that they weren;t hurting Morgoth, and they were using every bit of power they had.

"Kakarott," Vegeta began, "there's no way for us to win this fight by brute force alone. We have to come u[p with some kind of plan. This creature has already shown us that he doesn't work well against strategy."

Goku nodded. "But what can we do? You're going to be a little slower because of those scratches." He pointed at the four inch deep cuts that ran down Vegeta's lower leg, courtesy of Morgoth's claws.

Vegeta frowned. "I'm not worried about that. They hardly even hurt. I'm more worried about you. You're wounded, and you've been using up enormous amounts of ki. How much longer can you hold up, Kakarott?"

"As long as it takes." Goku said grimly. "But it'll be hard. This is a battle I wasn't expecting to have to fight."

Vegeta nodded at the words, but he wondered. Goku's wounds were already beginning to bleed again.

"Well, whatever we do, we have to figure something out quickly. I'm betting that ugly bastard isn't going to sit up there all day, smiling waiting for us to come up with a plan." 

"Just use all the speed you can." Goku said. "Attack from the sides and behind, and we'll try to ad lib something in the air."

They flew forward and up, toward the ever smiling demon.

Vegeta flew right at Morgoth, but when he got close he changed direction slightly and flew up over his opponent's head. As quickly as he could, he jumped behind him and threw an hard elbow back, trying to catch the spinal cord. But Morgoth spun around easily and blocked it before it hit home.

Goku had flown under, but he didn't attack at the same second Vegeta did. As soon as he saw his friend's blow blocked, he flew upward, twisting upside down in midair, and slammed his foot up into Morgoth's jaw. The demon's head flew back, and he was pushed away from Vegeta about a foot, but apparently it was just momentum, because right away he grabbed Goku's foot, swung him around easily, and threw him at the saiyajin prince.

Vegeta's eyes widened, but Goku was able to stop himself just before they collided. Communicating in some subliminal way that very great warriors have, they both spun and quickly fired.

"Kamehameha!"

"Big Bang Attack!" 

Morgoth flew straight at the attacks, showing one of the first real bursts of movement, and ducked under the huge beams. He did a sort of roll, putting his feet in front of him, and moving so fast that he was only a blur to the saiyajin, he planted one in Vegeta's stomach. As the prince doubled over, he pulled his leg in, then righted himself and landed an elbow in the face, then brought one fist up. He slammed it down into Vegeta's neck, sending the prince plummeting.

Goku flashed at Morgoth, but the demon stuck one hand in earth's hero's face and shot a huge ball of ki right into it. A huge flash of light lit up the sky as it exploded, driving the saiyajin to the ground.

Morgoth just chuckled.

"You two are pathetic. Really, I expected better. If I had known you would be this easy, I would have just killed you both from the start." He sighed, as if bored. "But I guess now that I started the battle, I have to finish it."

"I'll finish your battle!!" Vegeta's voice roared from below, and Morgoth glanced down, already too late.

In a moment of amazing clarity, Vegeta was visible. All the ki in his body was pushed forward into his arm, which was extended out with his fist clenched at the end. He had concentrated his ki so much that his golden mane of hair was actually black at the tips, and his fist was so full of power it was glowing like liquid metal.

Morgoth had no time to move. Vegeta was only feet below him.

He didn't even utter a syllable as the saiyajin prince's fist struck where his stomach would be if he had been a mortal, and plunged in, a jet of steaming dark blood shooting out. But it didn't stop. Vegeta kept going…. And going…

And his body went through, ripping Morgoth in half at the waist.

Covered in the blood, mixed between the monster's and his own, Vegeta spun around, and saw that a horrible ooze, not smoke but looking exactly like it, only solid, had begun to fly out of the two halves of the body. The stuff wasn't even black, but a disgusting looking dark brown.

Just then Goku flew up from where he had been thrown down, and leveled off next to Vegeta.

The saiyajins looked and saw that the brown muck had begun to intertwine, and was pulling the body back together. Apparently it wasn't so easy to kill a demon as to simply cut him in half.

"Vegeta, remember perfect Cell and Majin Buu! Hit him with everything you've got, now!"

Vegeta's muscles bulged slightly, and he put his hands together in front of him, palms facing outward.

Goku closed his eyes and brought out as much power as he could, pushing it into the cup he made with his hands.

The two halves of Morgoth's body were almost joined.

"Now!" Goku yelled, his eyes flying open.

"Final Flash!"

"Chou Kamehameha!"

The beams rushed forward just as the two points of fire in Morgoth's eyes became fully aware again.

The demon spread his arms in an oddly calm gesture. And black ki suddenly poured out of every pore of his body, making a huge shield that knocked aside the oncoming attacks as if they were water, pushing them off to the left and right and slightly upward.

As their attacks exploded harmlessly over the horizons, Vegeta and Goku looked in disbelief. The orb of protective ki around Morgoth was a strange glowing black that hurt the eyes. it was crossed occasionally by snapping purple lightning bolts.

He smiled indulgently inside the shield.

"Now that was much better." He laughed. "If you can keep that up, then we can have a decent fight."

Gohan stepped through the glowing circle of light where King Kai stood, Juuhachi-gou following close behind him. He was only slightly surprised to find that he had just stepped through a doorway to Kaio-shin-Kai.

"Wow." He said with a smile as the gateway closed behind Juuhachi-gou. "How did you guys get us here? And where were we to begin with?"

King Kai smiled and stuck his chest out. "Well, you could say I talked a little with lord Enma, and he decided that it would be okay if me and Kaio-bit made a few modifications to the spirit directory of earth."

Gohan looked slightly confused. "The what?"

"See, whenever someone dies, their spirits are guided to the otherworld by what's called a spirit guide. Usually you can't remember them, but I'll tell you, there a little like elves, and a little like horses, and a lot like Koosh balls."

"Umm…" Gohan scratched his head.

"Anyway, we made a few modifications, so that whenever any warrior on earth died during this fight, it would bring them to purgatory, the place you just were. And as gods, we have direct access." King Kai smiled proudly.

"Oh…" Gohan shrugged. "I guess I understand."

"Pretty genius, huh?"

the demi-saiyajin smiled. "Sure. But didn't you say something about getting me back to earth?"

"Oh, right! Well, you go down under the clouds, and then you'll be in the lower hells. Then you just go right back out the gateway!"

"All right!" Gohan smiled. "Well, I guess I'd better get going!"

"Wait just a minute, Gohan."

Gohan looked back at King Kai questioningly.

"I was wondering… What do you know about the Kaio-ken?"


	18. Chapter Five

Chapter Five:

Osiris gazed at Uubu coolly, letting the mental feel of the boy's conflicting emotions flow through him. It was amazing, the mixture of fear and wonder that the boy was sending out. As if he wanted to think that Osiris had done him a favor, but was far to smart to really believe it. 

As he always did, he stopped to listen with his mind, and see himself as mortals saw him. Skin so white it seemed impossibly inhuman, eyes that burned like torches, a disarming feeling of unearthly power binding the whole immortal figure. He smiled. He was quite vain, actually, and enjoyed looking at himself. Most vampires really were beautiful; they were chosen for their beauty. Strange but true. Most immortals came to be because another could not resist them.

But good looking or not, Uubu was very afraid right now. Not that he intended to let it show. He was fairly sure that Osiris was not going to let him live, but if he had to go, he was at least going to go down fighting honorably. No sniveling or begging for Son Goku's student.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked, trying to sound as brave as possible.

It worked. Osiris' eyes widened just slightly, almost not even enough for Uubu to notice. He was stricken by the boy's bravery, actually. Understand, bravery has nothing to do with feeling no fear. Bravery, real raw courage, had to do with how you acted in spite of the fear. Uubu had shown more courage than many, many thousands of beings that had fallen at Osiris' hands over the centuries. It was vaguely unsettling, but also pleasant. 

"Well?" Uubu repeated, still no hint of a shake in his voice.

"I don't know." Osiris answered truthfully. "To be quite honest, I don't really feel one way or the other about you. But your courage touches me. It makes me feel a bit reluctant."

The boy's eyes widened. "You mean… you don't want to kill me?"

A wry smirk crossed the vampire's face. "No. But I don't really want to _not _kill you, either. Sometimes that's just as important. At least to me."

Uubu's eyes narrowed again, and he struggled down into a defensive stance in spite of the ever worsening pain he was feeling, and the extreme drain of energy.

Osiris smiled again, this time a smile that almost looked human.

Almost.

"That's what I needed, my young friend." He said with a slight laugh. "I don't think I'll kill you. In fact, I think I may help you."

"Wha…?" Uubu muttered. He didn't understand what the vampire was going to do. He sank halfheartedly to one knee. The pain was really getting horrible.

"You're injured." Osiris said, walking up so that he stood directly in front of Uubu. "I can heal you easily. Bu the methods may be a bit… strange to you."

Uubu was in so much pain that he wouldn't have cared if Osiris had put on a skirt and danced around him, chanting. He just wanted to be rid of it all. So he nodded.

"Very well then." Osiris said. He raised his arm, and suddenly bit into his wrist. Then before the boy could react, he had pressed the open wound against Uubu's mouth!

At first he tried to jerk back in revulsion, but then a liquid so wholly unlike blood hit his tongue that he paused. 

It was so strange, and yet absurdly wonderful that it was more felt through the whole body than tasted with the tongue. It was like moonlight made liquid, drinking the night. The second it hit him, it was almost as if his body had reacted without his brain, because he was sucking it down greedily.

Later he tried to describe those few seconds of his entire soul being penetrated by this strange thing, and could not come even close. All he knew was that he fairly wallowed in it. It was the most intense thing he had ever experienced. If he had been a saiyajin, he would have been able to claim with full confidence that going super for the first time was nothing compared to this surge. 

It could have been five seconds or five days when Osiris pulled the wrist from him. For a second he grabbed at it, but then quickly regained control of himself. He felt winded, like after running a very long distance. Without even thinking about it, he sat all the way down, then went flat on his back, staring up at the clouds that covered the whole sky.

After laying for a second, he realized that all the pain was gone, and after the shortness of breath wore off it was clear that his ki was back to full power, or maybe even stronger than before.

"What did you do to me?" he asked slowly, not looking away from the clouds. 

"The dark blood heals all wounds." Osiris answered. "You see?"

Uubu turned his head and saw that the vampire was holding his right arm up, and the skin of the wrist had already healed flawlessly, as if it had never been cut at all.

Suddenly a horrible thought hit him.

"You didn't…." he paused, almost not able to finish.

"Make you a vampire?" Osiris chuckled. "Of course not."

He sighed in relief. At least he didn't have to worry about _that_.

"I'll be leaving you now." Osiris said. "Although I don't think I'll leave the planet just yet. You never know, I may decide to lend your comrades a hand after all."

Uubu was about to reply, but Osiris blurred away, moving far faster than Uubu's eyes could detect. To all appearances, Osiris had vanished from sight again.

"That's IT!!"

Trunks' yell brought everyone to a halt. 

"I'm through playing around!" the young super saiyajin yelled, but he was smiling. "What about you guys?"

Tien smirked. "Definitely."

"Sure thing." Yamucha smiled as well.

Goten gave Trunks a thumbs up. He had been steadily recovering, and though he was far from 100%, he was much better than he had been half an hour ago.

Choutzu didn't say anything. He sat down, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes tightly.

"Let's go all out!!" Trunks yelled, as his hair flashed bigger, his aura shot higher, and ki snapped around him in whips of lightning as he pushed into level two.

Cell, who hadn't said a word to Trunks since the whole affair started and they had been evenly matched, suddenly looked very afraid. It was clear that he hadn't been doing any training at all in the other world.

Tien was floating in the air, in front of and above Recoome and Jiece. He grunted and clenched the muscles of his shoulders bulged. Suddenly a second pair of arms burst from them.

Both sets pressed their palms to each other, and formed two triangles in front of Tien's eyes and chest.

"Twin Shin Kai-ko-ho!!" he screamed, and two huge blasts suddenly roared into existence where there had only been air. 

Yamucha thrust his hands forward, throwing a huge beam of ki at the Burter, who was staring at the huge beam in which his friends were currently being disintegrated. 

Trunks' arms and hands flashed in a series of quick moves, then he snapped them to the front, thumbs and forefingers together, palms out.

"Burning attack!" he shot an enormous beam at Cell.

Now the only one left was Guldo, who was staring at the small psychic in front of him. Choutzu had begun to glow slightly.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open, and a huge jet of flame erupted under Guldo, vaporizing the weakest Ginyu member instantly.

The total light and sound made by the four attacks was enormous.

Krillin, Arda, and Baba stood next to Piccolo in the barren space made by the huge blast the namek had just let out. There had only been a small bit of trees still standing after Osiris had stripped most of the ground while powering up, but now even those were gone. For miles around all that was visible was bare rock.

"So what do we do now?" Krillin asked. "I mean, we got rid of most of those dementors, and I don't think there are any more of those weird things that attacked us. So where do we go from here?"

"I suggest helping Goku and Vegeta." Piccolo said calmly. "What else is there?"

"I'm not so sure you know what you're getting yourself into with that, Piccolo." Baba said. "Even if everyone on earth went to help Goku, we couldn't do any more than he could do by himself."

Suddenly Arda's head cocked to the side. "Someone's coming towards us. No ki, but it's definitely something alive."

The others looked in the way he was gazing, and now they could all see a pinpoint of light on the horizon. But Arda was right; there was no ki. None of the others could sense anything. Unless…

"I think I do sense something." Krillin said. "But it's so far away."

It was definitely at least ten miles from the spot where they stood to the point of light I the sky. The complete absence of scenery was frightfully ugly, but it did make for long range visibility.

"No, wait…" Arda said, his brow furrowing though it didn't really wrinkle into human lines. "I think I sense two things now. One has ki, more than the average inhabitant of this planet, but not really a huge fighting power. The other… it's sort of mechanical feeling, no ki at all. But it still feels human."

The point of light had now become two points of light, though still blurry. They were headed roughly in the warrior's direction.

"Can you make anything of it, Baba?" Piccolo asked, calm as ever.

"Not a thing." The witch said. "My crystal ball's been on the blink ever since those stupid clouds came in."

Suddenly Krillin burst into a smile. "Hey you guys, I can sense who it is!"

When Juunana-gou landed lightly on the hood of her hover car, Marron screamed so loudly it was a wonder that the windshield didn't shatter. then she recognized the rain soaked face in front of her as her uncle's, and quickly brought the air car to a halt so that she could land. Her intentions were fine, but the sudden stop threw Juunana-gou off the front of the car. If h hadn't been able to fly, he would have tumbled to the ground, but as it was he floated back in front of her in only a second.

Glancing out of her window, Marron saw that the rain had gone down to a mere drizzle. She decided that she really didn't need to land at all and opened the door.

"Uncle Juunana?" she hovered out of the air car and floated next to the ever ageless young man who was now floating near her. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "My radio started yelling at me in the voices of several of your friends." He said in an almost total deadpan. "I figured that was sign that _something _was going on. Then I saw your car flying over here, and here I am."

"Oh." 

A second of silence followed that would have become awkward if a ball of fire hadn't suddenly zoomed up from the ground and slammed into her aircar.

"Shit!" she screamed out, and dived backward in the air. The hover car her father had bought her for her last birthday (even though she was under the legal driving age) was now two smoking chunks of metal falling toward the ground.

"What the hell was that!?" she screamed, now looking scared and puzzled at her uncle for an explanation.

Juunana-gou uncrossed his arms and pointed casually downward.

Following to where his finger was pointing, Marron saw on the ground (she had been flying over some of the bare rock left by one of the many power ups, blasts, etc. over the day) that there were several large mecha suits with the Red Ribbon logo on them, being swarmed over by several hundred dementors. A stray blast must have shot up into the sky and hit her car.

"What are those things?" she asked in disgust. "They look repulsive!"

"I have no clue what they are, but they're everywhere on the ground." Juunana-gou answered. "And get this; I tried to fight one, and when it touched me, it sucked my energy out."

"Kami!"

"Yes. I suggest we don't walk."

Marron glanced up from the ground back up to her uncle. "So where do we go?"

He shrugged. "Your father is in that direction." He pointed off in the direction where the other warriors were. "I would say there. Unless you feel any particular urge to join Goku right now."

She shivered slightly and shook her head. She had been able to sense the thing that came out of hell well enough.

Behind Juunana-gou, a huge explosion suddenly went off, further away than her father was, but too close for comfort. She didn't know that it was Trunks, Tien, Yamucha, and Choutzu's attacks all going off at the same time, and she didn't care.

"Come on." She said, and they took off in the direction of her father, creating two points of light in the sky.

Goku stared mutely at the ball of energy that surrounded Morgoth. They had just thrown their strongest attacks at him. Their very strongest, and he had completely blocked them. What were they supposed to do against that?

"Well?" the demon taunted. "Come on, why don't you attack? You haven't worn yourselves out, have you? How perfectly disappointing."

Vegeta growled, and was about to rush forward. But Goku reached a hand out and stopped him.

"Vegeta, I think I might know how we can win."

"What!?" the saiyajin prince turned to Goku. "How? What is it?"

"Do you remember the fusion dance?"

At first, there was no reaction at all. Then Vegeta said in a low voice, "You must be mad."

"Come on Vegeta!" Goku looked at his rival/friend pleadingly. "I know you hate it, but I don't think we're going to win any other way! This guy just threw off our best attacks, and it doesn't even look like he's powered up yet!"

"No, no chance in hell, Kakarott. I absolutely refuse to fuse with you again. I told you before, and I meant it!"

Goku only stared at him. 

"Don't try to convince me, baka. I said no!"

"Then I guess we all die." Goku said flatly.

Vegeta paused. Then he sighed. 

"You owe me, Kakarott. You owe me."

Goku's face lit up. "Thanks, Vegeta! I know we can beat him now!"

They floated to the ground, Vegeta grumbling under his breath. They took their positions, Vegeta slightly closer to the demon above them than Goku was.

"Don't want to fight anymore? Well, isn't that too bad."

Morgoth's voice startled them both, and Vegeta most of all, because before he noticed a difference the monster had swooped down on him and grabbed him by the neck.

Goku screamed out and slammed a fist into the side of Morgoth's face, but it looked as if he didn't even feel it.

Vegeta was being held with his boots hung about two feet above the ground, because Morgoth was so tall. And was Goku drew back for a second punch, the demon casually reached up slightly and ripped Vegeta's leg off.

The saiyajin prince screamed in agony, his hair instantly shrinking down from super saiyajin three down to level two as his ki was sapped away by his central nervous system, burning it away in the extremity of the pain. Morgoth smiled.

"Here. Hold this." He laughed and threw the leg at Goku, who actually caught it in the shock at what Morgoth had just done. Then he dropped it with a jolt, and looked back at the demon.

"What comes next?" Morgoth mused. "How about the left arm? You don't use that much anyway, do you?"

"BASTARD!!" Goku screamed, and launched at the demon, pushing ki into his forearm, going for a blow of decapitation force. He connected with Morgoth's face again, and this time the demon was knocked back a few feet and actually to the ground.

Vegeta landed on his one leg, and actually stood for a second.

"Kakarott…" he said groggily. "I think I may be wounded."

Then he fell flat to the ground, blood still jetting from the stump of his leg.

The last of Vegeta's words were mixed with Morgoth's laughter. 

"I'm going to kill you." Goku said, his aura flashing around him in a blaze of power, his eyes taking the golden hue of his ki again. "I'm going to take you the hell apart."

"Well, you can try." Morgoth chuckled, and then in a blur leapt up and flew at Goku.


	19. Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

Osiris lowered his ki down to almost undetectable levels and sat down on the hard packed earth, all that was left where a lush forest had been only hours ago. He crossed one leg over the other slightly and laid down on his back, hands resting on his chest.

It was time to do some serious thinking.

He had just helped Uubu. Given him his very blood, something he hadn't done for anyone in a long, long time. The boy probably didn't notice it yet, but his powers would grow substantially as the blood infused itself with his own. He might even gain some temporary telepathic abilities.

But Uubu's power really wasn't what he wanted to consider. He was wondering what had moved him to help a mortal in the first place. Generally, he considered them to be garbage, or food. 

For the life of him, he couldn't think why he'd done it. It had actually been more impulse than anything else, but he wasn't sure where the impulse had come from. It certainly wasn't the kind of thing he would do normally.

There were enough psychics on the planet that he thought one of them might have placed the thought in his head. But he was sure he would have noticed someone intruding in his mind, no matter how slight. So that meant that it must have come from him.

That thought was almost more disturbing than thinking someone had slipped into his mind undetected. This meant that his own thoughts were turning to areas where he usually didn't go. 

Running one hand lightly over his eyes, he wondered if he could be going completely nuts.

Goku jumped back and flew into the air, Morgoth's fist whizzing through the air in front of him as he left the ground, shooting up into the air and as far away from the demon as he could, desperately trying to formulate some sort of plan to fight. It was difficult, because Morgoth hadn't yet shown the full extent of his power. 

"Better just try to hit hard and fast. End it quick." Goku muttered to himself.

Morgoth shot up into the sky after him, but Goku was well prepared and slipped to the side, letting the demon slide slightly past him. He slammed his fist into the monster's ribcage, then spun without pausing and kicked Morgoth square in the face, sending him flying to the side. 

Goku looked coolly on as Morgoth stopped himself, the golden fire in his eyes burning. "Ka… me…" he cupped his hands at his side.

Morgoth stopped himself, a grimace of pain crossing his already unpleasant face. He quickly began to charge a blast in his hand, his palm pointing at Goku, his left hand holding his wrist.

"ha… me…"

"HA!!"

Goku's huge ray of golden light poured out of his hands, and Morgoth released a purple beam with a roar that could have destroyed the eardrums of any normal human. The two blasts met directly between the fighters and clashed, sending out whips of lightning.

Grunting in frustration and slight pain, Goku pushed more and more ki into the blast. With the full power of super saiyajin three, he sometimes felt as if his reservoir of ki was endless. But he was going to find out now exactly when it did end, and he was very worried that it wouldn't be enough.

Yet…

It almost seemed as if Morgoth was tiring…

But maybe not quick enough. Maybe not at all.

The ball of energy where the blasts met in the middle was growing. They could only pour so much energy at each other before it became too much. Goku was afraid that it would explode, and instead of one of them taking the force of the blast, the earth and air around them would take it instead.

An explosion of that magnitude could destroy the earth. An explosion like that could destroy the solar system.

But Goku didn't have to think about it for long, because Morgoth's voice, somehow heard even over the roar of their ki, came to his ears.

"You're strong, Goku. But not strong enough. I'm getting bored playing, and I'm ending our game."

Goku didn't even have time to feel frightened before he felt Morgoth's ki suddenly shoot up beyond any comprehendible level, and all the energy he and Morgoth had been pumping into the blast was suddenly pushed down on him. The explosion slammed him downward into the ground, tearing into solid rock and then burying him with it, as the entire world seemed to fill with ki.

He barely heard the demon's laugh before he passed out.

A/N: This is the shortest chapter I've ever written. Sorry about that, but the next one should be out soon. Of course, every time I say that, something happens to delay me…


	20. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven:

All the warriors still fighting on earth stopped whatever they were doing or saying as they felt Morgoth's ki surge and Goku's ki plummet; the huge pillar of purple crackling energy rising into the sky visible even to Marron and Juunana-gou.

At first no one could say anything. Then Krillin finally muttered…

"Goku…"

There was another pause as Piccolo stared wide eyed, uncrossing his arms and letting them hang at his sides, forgotten. Arda had one hand slightly over his mouth, as if in disbelief. Baba at first didn't seem to have changed at all, except that her mouth was open in surprise.

"I think I may have to take back what I said." Arda said slowly. "Goku needs help."

Piccolo and Krillin nodded. 

"Hey, Baba." Krillin said. "Can you go find Marron and make sure she comes nowhere near us."

"Of course."

Without more unnecessary words, all flew off.

Morgoth stopped flying a few minutes after he had started, now almost on the other side of the planet from Goku and the other z warriors. He looked around at the thriving metropolis below him. 

He couldn't decide how to begin extinguishing the life of this planet. He could just blow it up, but that was far too easy and he liked to hunt for the few survivors that were strong enough to live after he killed most of their peers. Not possible if this species was not able to breathe in space.

He could go around the planet and destroy the major cities one by one, but that presented the opposite problem. That left too many survivors, too many stragglers that he would have to hunt down. Hunting for that many people got boring, and if he got bored he might get reckless. He might just decide to blow the planet apart, and that destroyed any possible resources that might still be here.

There were other options, other ways of cleansing planets of most life, many elaborate and difficult, such as Majin Buu's genocide attack. They were all rather wasteful and pointless in Morgoth's opinion. What was the fun of killing people so elaborately if you couldn't see it and enjoy it?

But there was one way, one fairly easy way that left only the strongest alive, the ones that far surpassed the normal weak humans. That way, he could enjoy hunting and killing the z warriors one by one. 

And who could know? Perhaps Goku was alive and would be able to provide a little more fun before it was all over.

Morgoth smiled cruelly and crossed his arms in front of him, ki beginning to build.

At first when Vegeta opened his eyes and saw the dark, turbulent clouds, he thought he was dead and in hell. He had never seen clouds or sky like this except for in hell, and for some reason he was sure that he should be dead.

He knew that he had been fighting Morgoth, and he knew that he must have somehow been wounded, and badly. But he couldn't remember how, and that didn't explain why he had just regained consciousness. 

His leg…

He remembered now. Morgoth had pulled his leg off, just as easily as if he had been ripping a wing from a fly. The blood had poured out in a torrent, tunneling his vision and making him pass out in seconds. But what had happened to Kakarott? And why was he waking up?

He tried to move his neck a little and found that he could, even though it was stiff and painful. He looked down, feeling grim dread at seeing the stump where his leg had been.

He almost had a heart attack when he saw that there was only a large gash, and that was healing as Arda's cut wrist dripped strange, dark colored blood onto it.

"What the HELL!!" he tried to scream, though it came out as an intense whisper.

Arda glanced up at the prince's face and then back down to the quickly disappearing gash. 

"You'll be healed in a minute, Vegeta. You're lucky just to be alive."

"Shut up." He managed weakly. "Where's Kakarott?"

"Krillin and Piccolo are looking for him. That blast blew everything up so much that we had to hunt for close to ten minutes just to find your leg. That's why you're lucky to be alive. I honestly don't see how you didn't bleed to death."

"I'm a saiyajin. Something so small couldn't kill me." His voice was stronger now, and he could feel the blood that was healing his leg also giving him strength back. The gash was now a small cut, and he almost felt that he would be able to stand. The pain in the rest of his body was still quite bad, but much less than it had been at the point when he woke up.

Arda chuckled and stood up, straightening his long coat as the cuts on his wrist and Vegeta's leg vanished completely. "I figured you would say something like that. Come on, you should be able to get up now, but it'll hurt."

Vegeta cautiously moved his arms to the ground and pressed his palms down, pressing lightly and using his ki to push up. In a second he was on his feet, and found that he could stand, though his entire body ached like an old rotten tooth. But he _could _stand, and that was better than Kakarott was undoubtedly doing right now.

Kakarott…

"We have to find Kakarott." Vegeta said. "I can only just sense his ki. He must be hurt very badly."

"We did see the explosion a few miles away."

The prince glanced back and forth, looking for any trace that could mean a person was buried. Krillin and Piccolo were standing a bit away, both appearing to be doing the same thing he was. But it was all pointless. Goku was _somewhere _close by, but his ki was so low and erratic that it was impossible to tell if he was five feet away or a mile.

Normally it would be easy to see where someone was buried because you would only have to dig through the rubble to find them. But the huge explosion had reduced everything to rubble for miles around, and digging through it all would take a year. 

"Where is Morgoth? Did Kakarott kill him?" 

Arda shook his head. "Not even close. As soon as we find Goku, Morgoth is next. But I really don't see much hope for the whole thing myself. Goku could be miles away for all we can tell."

And he was.

A plain black boot nudged the hand slightly. The hand was sticking out of the dirt, and it belonged to Son Goku. The boot was attached to a leg clad in plain black cloth, and it belonged to the vampire Osiris. 

"What have we here?" he smiled slightly. When the huge blast had torn through the landscape around him, he had shielded himself with ki, and Goku had been blown almost directly in front of him and mostly buried. He had heard the monster's laugh, somehow audible over the mile of distance, and then it was all gone.

Now he was left with Goku covered in rubble, virtually powerless, less than a foot away.

Looking down, he saw a lock of black hair was also sticking above the earth. He reached down smoothly and seized it, drawing Goku out of the rock by his hair as easily as drawing him out of water. And remarkably, the saiyajin was semi-conscious. His eyes were half open as blood ran town his wrecked body into the dirt where his feet still rested.

For a minute, Osiris simply stared into the half-comprehending saiyajin eyes in front of him, thinking. He could kill Goku right now, tear his heart out and suck the blood from it like he sometimes did to his victims. Undoubtedly the infusion of this strong blood would increase his own power substantially, but there was another side to this riddle.

Morgoth was still alive, and Goku was the only one who could potentially win.

And for that reason, Osiris felt reluctant to kill him.

"I could care less about your fate, Goku." Osiris said, not knowing or even caring if Goku was aware enough to understand. "But my own still worries me a great deal, and if you die, I might very well have signed my own death warrant as well."

More thinking. He could heal Goku, just like he had healed Uubu and he could feel Arda healing Vegeta, but he wasn't sure he wanted to. He was still having second thoughts about helping the boy earlier. What had made him do that? What was making him consider doing it again?

"I may very well be going crazy." He muttered.

Goku suddenly muttered/slurred something in response.

"What?"

"Sane. Going _sane._"

Osiris stopped. Goku was probably delirious, not knowing what he was saying, but still, something had just struck a core in Osiris. 

"Going sane." He sighed and bit into his wrist. 

He pressed the wound to Goku's mouth.

Then everything stopped.

Everyone on the planet could sense it, even some of the more finely tuned untrained humans could pick it up. More ki than anyone had ever sensed, more ki than anyone had ever imagined could exist in the universe erupted seemingly out of nowhere over Satan city. a wall of purple and black was the last sight of billions of humans as their lives were obliterated in a second.

From space, the planet glowed with power, the entire surface covered with purple ki and the few splashes of white and gold as the z warriors shielded themselves from the wall of death.

And in the roar of incalculable power, the only things still alive on the earth were the z fighters, the two vampires, and the demon they were allied against.

Every other living thing had been vaporized.


	21. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight:

The roar of ki finally died down, even though it seemed to the energy-shielded Goten that it went on forever. How could one being generate that much power? How could any number of beings generate that much power!? The amount of ki that was only now dying down had been more than all the z warriors combined, if the young demi-saiyajin could still estimate strength.

He lowered his ki and let the shield dissipate, a huge relief after the exhaustion of the past few hours. He didn't even know if he could get back up to super saiyajin now if he tried, he was so tired. He ha been electrocuted, had blood sucked from him almost to the point of death, and been knocked out and beat on by the goons that they had destroyed only minutes before the wall of ki had come rushing at them. If he had had any more energy, it would have been remarkable.

Looking around, he saw the others who were still around. Tien and Choutzu were on the ground, the smaller of the pair standing very near to the larger's leg. Tien was uncrossing his arms and standing erect. Apparently, he had shielded the both of them, and it had taken quite a bit of effort. That, at least, Goten could be sure of.

Yamucha was standing nearby, leaning slightly over with a hand on his leg, breathing heavily. He was like Goten, more interested in the other things life had to offer besides training, so he was having to put forth more effort than the others. But he looked like he was fine. His long black hair wasn't even messed up much.

Trunks, the last of them, was directly below Goten in the air, his hair still in the long spikes of super saiyajin two. He was alert already, scanning around them with the three humans on the ground, looking for the possible source of the huge wall of ki that had destroyed everything. But all they could see was bare rock.

"I can't sense anyone."

Tien's voice startled Goten, making him jump.

"What?" he asked. "what do you mean, you can't sense anyone?"

"I mean I can't sense anyone on earth but us and our friends. Everyone's dead. Everyone on the entire planet is dead." There was a very slight shake in the tri-clops' voice.

Goten's eyes widened, and then he abruptly closed them, concentrating. Looking for any normal human ki signature…

"That's crazy!" Yamucha almost yelled. "To kill everyone, that blast would have had to cover the entire earth!"

Tien glanced at him and crossed his arms. "It might have."

"It's just like Buu." Trunks said, not able to really articulate what he meant. "Buu all over again." 

For the two boys, Buu had been like a childhood villain come to life. And there was nothing quite as creepy as sensing nothing on a planet where before there had always been an abundance of life. The entire planet suddenly seemed like a graveyard.

"What could have done that?" Goten asked no one in particular. He began to drop down, and Trunks followed, landing next to him as his hair fell from gold back to lavender. Yamucha walked over and stood next to the two demi-saiyajin and the two earthlings.

"Whatever Goku was fighting, would be my guess." Tien said. "Whatever it is."

"I say we go help him." Trunks said, glancing at the others. "I mean, if that's what we're dealing with, we need all the power in the world."

"I guess that's what we have to do." Yamucha sighed. "But I don't like it."

"Me either. But we have to." Goten said.

One by one, they blasted off into the air with small flares of ki that, after the wave they had just experienced, seemed unbelievably small and unimportant.

Uubu stood amidst the ruined waste that had been a forest a few hours ago and at least a semi-interesting landscape a few seconds ago. Now it was just bare rock. The huge onrush of ki had completely destroyed everything, leaving only cracked rock.

What could have done this?

"Only one thing I can think of." Uubu answered himself. "Whatever Goku-sensei is fighting, it's really heating up. I may be able to help."

He surged his ki, feeling the increase that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere after he drank Osiris' blood. It still paled in comparison to Morgoth's power, but it was a substantial increase. 

He blasted off toward where he had last sensed the battle.

Goku opened his eyes and stared into Osiris' icy blue ones, suddenly awake. His entire body hurt, and he wasn't sure how well he would be able to fight, but the sight of an enemy in his face so unexpectedly surged adrenaline into his blood and he immediately jumped backward out of the way, landing in a shaky defensive crouch about ten feet away.

"Feeling better?" Osiris made no move to advance, and he looked vaguely troubled. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Goku growled. "What happened? Why aren't I dead?" he winced as he talked, feeling the pain in his chest and decided that at least a few of his ribs were broken. But he knew he should have been hurt far worse than this. So what had happened?

"I healed you. Just as I did your student." Osiris said, standing with his arms crossed and just staring at Goku.

"I would appreciate it if you stayed out of my head." The saiyajin growled. Then he paused. "Wait, did you say you healed Uubu? How? What happened to him?"

"Simply expended far too much ki in a battle." Osiris said. "I did the same for him as I did for you. I gave him my blood."

Goku looked alarmed.

"Don't be so shocked." The vampire smiled. "Vampire blood has some very interesting properties. But as I haven't fed in a long while and have already lost a great amount, I didn't have enough to heal you completely. I did, however, save your life."

"You could have killed me." Goku said after a pause. "Why didn't you?"

At first Osiris didn't answer. He looked slightly agitated and unusually thoughtful. 

"I don't know." He said finally. Then he chuckled. "Maybe it was fate?"

Goku shook his head. "I don't buy it."

"Too bad." Osiris frowned. "I could still kill you, you know."

"You won't do it. Not if you didn't before."

"Don't be so sure." The vampire now looked angry. 

Goku shook his head and stood up straight, holding his ribs. "What happened to Morgoth?"

"Well, I assume it was him who just killed every living thing on the planet. Who else would have done it?"

Goku's head snapped up and he looked Osiris directly in the eye. "What did you say?"

"I hate repeating myself." The vampire frowned. "I believe you heard me the first time."

Goku shook his head, then shut his eyes and concentrated. Tried to sense anything other than himself and Osiris. He felt the other z warriors easily enough, and he could feel Arda with Krillin and Piccolo, and Uubu by himself, moving toward the others.

But there was nothing else.

"Kami, what did he do?" Goku muttered. "There's nothing…"

"How very observant." Osiris said dryly as Goku opened his eyes. "And what good has all your effort done? The planet you wanted to protect has been laid to waste, and you would have died had I not intervened. You can't possibly beat a power like Morgoth, and the only thing you can hope for is to die trying. What is there left to do?"

Goku looked sharply into the vampire's eyes, but didn't see any real malice behind the words. Only a sort of tiredness.

"We do whatever we can." Goku sighed, but the sigh turned into a growl. "You, ironically, said it perfectly. If all we can hope for is to die trying, then we die trying."

Osiris looked surprised.

"Will you help me now?" Goku asked. "You know that Morgoth will kill you eventually, even if you run. At least you can die with honor instead of running."

"Honor means nothing to me." Osiris said with a sigh. "But…"

Goku didn't know what it meant to drink someone's blood, or to have someone drink his in the way only a vampire could experience it. He didn't know that as the exchange took place, the experience was a glimpse into another's heart, mind, and soul. He had seen quite a bit in the few seconds while he gave Goku blood and simultaneously shielded them both from the ki blast. And he was still mulling it over.

No one could look into Son Goku's soul and go completely unchanged.

He sighed.

"Fine. I'll do it."

Goku smiled. "Good. Come on, we're going to fight. It's now or never."

He walked over and placed a hand on Osiris' shoulder. Then they vanished.

In the other world, there was absolute chaos.

Gohan was standing next to King Kai, arms at his sides, fists clenched, knees slightly bent, brow furrowed in frustration, trying to get the hang of the god's technique. Then all of a sudden, there were voices coming from the still open doorway that he and Juuhachi-gou had come through. Many voices, shouting.

Curious, Gohan stood up straight, eyes widening slightly. "What's going on down there?"

No one answered. 

King Kai waited for a second, but the voices only got louder. So he walked over to the doorway and looked down.

"Oh my…."

"What is it, King Kai? Did someone else die?" Gohan asked, concerned, and walked over next to King Kai, followed closely by Juuhachi-gou.

They looked down.

"Shit." The cyborg looked down wide-eyed.

In the vast blackness was the entire population of earth. 


	22. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine:

Goku and Osiris appeared in the midst of Tien, Trunks, Goten, Yamucha, and Choutzu. At the sudden unexpected arrival, all of them jumped, and Trunks and Goten openly recoiled, dropping into defensive stances instinctively in the presence of an enemy.

Goku saw this at once, even in his injured condition, and quickly moved to intercept the attacks he knew would be directed at the vampire. Fortunately he got in front of him before the boys were able to focus their just-dropped energy.

"Wait, you two! He's here to help!" he yelled. The demi-saiyajin stopped, but their expressions didn't change, and they didn't get out of the stances.

"He almost killed Goten and me." Trunks said in a low voice. "What the _hell_ do you mean he's here to help!?"

Goku shook his head. "I know that, but we have to put that aside for now. The situation is far worse than we thought it would ever be."

"Put it aside!!" Trunks' eyes widened, with anger or true surprise it was hard to tell. "Goten was almost dead! Your son was almost dead because of that bastard, and you of all people are saying put it aside!!?"

Goku opened his mouth, looking as if he was about to speak, but Osiris cut him off.

"Trunks, you have every right to complain about me, and to want to see my head on the end of a stick, and anything else you can think of. But, how would you say it? This i9sn't the time for bitching. I'll be more than hap[y to give you another shot at me when this is all over, but for now all our quarrels must be put aside to serve the good of the entire universe."

He said it in a way that sounded almost snide, definitely smart aleck, but the words seemed to do the trick anyway. Trunks seemed to consider for a long moment, staring at Osiris, and then at Goku's pain-filled, serious face. Then he finally stood up.

He looked hard at Osiris. "I won't forget what you said. I'm fighting you again when this is all over."

"Of that I have no doubt." Osiris said, crossing his arms. His tone was somehow insulting, so much so that Trunks considered for one brief moment just attacking the vampire, hitting him with a huge blast from the side or the back. But that quickly faded when he thought of how much of a breach of honor he would be committing, and he was content to glare at Osiris without attacking for now.

It might have gone on peacefully, if Vegeta, Arda, Krillin, and Piccolo hadn't chosen that moment to appear, via Arda using instant transmission. Vegeta took one look at Osiris standing there, and immediately screamed and dove at him.

The vampire threw up his arms in an x, easily blocking the powered-down Vegeta's punch. The saiyajin prince's hair flared sudden gold fire and lightning snapped around him as he blazed into super saiyajin level two. He flipped backward, landed on his feet, and dashed quickly back, this time successfully landing a foot into Osiris' face. 

The vampire snarled, and he reached up and grabbed Vegeta's foot, and threw the prince down hard on the rocks. Then Goku landed, grabbing Vegeta arms and dragging the prince back, somehow holding him and trying to talk to him.

"Vegeta, stop! Dammit, doesn't anyone listen to me!?" Goku yelled. "Alright, no one attack Osiris!"

Vegeta didn't power down, but he did stop struggling and looked curiously at Goku. "What? You mean he wasn't attacking you?"

Goku looked dumbfounded. 

"When we sensed you both in the same place," Arda said, walking up, "we assumed you two were going to fight, so I teleported us over here."

Goku shook his head suddenly, clearing it all away. "Forget about all of that, you guys. I have a plan."

Uubu caught up with the other as they stood on the ground discussing Osiris and hitting each other. Just as Goku had convinced them to wait, he touched down.

When Goku saw him land, his teacher smiled hugely.

"Uubu!" he rushed over, wrapping his young protégé in a bear hug almost before Uubu could be sure what was happening. "You're alive!"

The young human boy laughed and hugged his teacher back. "Goku-sensei! You're okay too! I was worried something was wrong."

Goku laughed. "Oh, there were some problems alright. And there still are. But I think I may have a way to get rid of them. I was just about to tell everyone my plan. It's a little risky, but I thin we can do it."

"Just spit it out already, baka." Vegeta said, patient as ever.

"Okay, okay." Goku sighed, suddenly more serious. "I really don't know if this will work, guys. But we have to try. This is what we do: everyone who's here, power up as high as you can and charge up your best attack. We get in a circle as we do it, and our auras all connect and sort of mesh, binding us all together. Then, I use the instant transmission, taking us all directly to Morgoth. If all our energies are linked, I can do it."

"I get what you're saying!" Tien smiled suddenly. "It could work!"

"Bastard won't know what hit him!" Vegeta smirked.

"Let's do it, then, and stop wasting time!" Trunks said. 

Quickly, everyone arranged themselves in the air into a circle, and there were several flashes of gold and white as they all began to power up.

Goku was last to start, taking longer to gather his energy because it was so depleted. His hair finally blazed into the golden, gravity defying spikes and lightning of super saiyajin two, but he knew instinctively that he wouldn't be able to take it past this form. He simply supped his hands and began to gather energy.

Vegeta went directly to level two as well, his energy also being too low from the beating he had taken to reach level three. His hands in front of him, palms out as the ki pushed into them, gathering into a blast. 

Uubu was actually able to have fun, he was so pleased with the new amount of energy he had. He let the ki rush around him in a wave before focussing it into a kamehameha, enjoying the feel of the unaccustomed power.

Tien held his hands in front of him in a triangle, charging one of the most dangerous attacks to the user and the receiver alike, letting bits of his life force slip into the Kai-ko-ho blast, carefully controlling it so that the attack would remain stable and not blow up in his hands.

Goten focussed his kamehameha as well as he could, simply trying to stay focussed and keep pain as far from his mind as possible.

Trunks was in super saiyajin level two, his index fingers and thumbs touching, palms splayed out in front of him. He was charging the attack well, but he wasn't able to focus with Osiris so near to him. He was thinking strategy, how he would try to maximize whatever advantages he had against his stronger opponent.

Various warriors, all thinking various thoughts. But one by one, all eleven warriors yelled out that they were ready, ki glowing in everyone's hands, auras enmeshed with each other.

"Okay." Goku grunted with effort. "Just in case this doesn't work, I want you all to know that this is the most honorable way for a warrior to die. I'm proud to be on the same side."

Then the entire circle vanished.

Morgoth had been pondering which of the earth's surviving warriors he would hunt down first and exactly how he would do it when he first sensed ki beginning to gather. He paid attention, interested, wondering what was happening. Then it had kept gathering, and gathering, and gathering. It was becoming confusing. 

Then they had appeared.

When they first all saw Morgoth, the demon didn't seem to register what he was seeing. Then his eyes went wide, and the pits of fire in them flared.

"No.." he said, growling.

Then everything blew up.

"Ka me ha me HA!!!!" Goku, Goten, Uubu, Krillin, and Yamucha all let the signature kame blast loose in blazes of light.

"Final FLASH!!" Vegeta screamed, his signature attack flying down out of his hands.

Arda and Osiris, working strangely alike, letting down twin beams, their attacks exactly alike, twin fists in front of their bodies throwing nameless spiral blasts as they yelled with power.

"Kai-ko-HO!!" Tien let the huge life force attack rip from his hand, almost burning the air.

"Burning attack!!" Trunks' blast shooting down at the enemy with a super saiyajin's intensity.

The energy was huge,the explosion too loud to be heard by human or saiyajin ears, the sight of the blast too bright for saiyajin or human eyes t take in. the sheer force blew them all back, a literal wall of ki hitting Morgoth and meeting in the middle, pushing every which way.

It seemed that the roar of power would never end, but it finally did, after all the warriors had been tossed away, and buried in rubble. The blast had been huge, and the warriors were all close to half a mile from the point they had fired the blasts, and a few seconds after the energy died, they began to dig themselves out.

The scene on Kaio-shin-Kai was an interesting one.

Gohan and King Kai stood off to one side, the god now apparently just talking to Gohan, giving him last minute instructions or something. Kaio-bit was pacing back and forth in front of the black gateway in the air, looking down every once in a while to where Dende was, floating on Mr. Popo's magic carpet (old Kaio-shin had produced it from somewhere without even taking his eyes off of his comic book) and trying to comfort the residents of earth. He didn't seem to be doing much good, but he _was _trying.

"Okay now, Gohan, I want you to remember what I told you." King Kai said seriously. "The more powerful you are in your base state, the more dangerous the Kaio-ken becomes. So you can't use it more than times two. If you do it more than that, you could cause severe damage to your body."

"Right." Gohan nodded, looking like he agreed completely. But inside, he knew that if it meant saving the earth, he would push the Kaio-ken to whatever lengths he had to.

"Okay." The Kai smiled. "Go get 'em then, kid. Just dive through the clouds and find the gateway."

Gohan nodded, floating up off the ground. "Thanks for all your help, King Kai."

The god nodded. 

Gohan waved his hand one last time, then flew around the planet and straight into the clouds, down to the lower hells, and the gateway. 

Barren rock, nothing but rubble as far as the eye can see. Then a muscular arm suddenly pierced through the top, hooked into the ground and pulled. Then came a shoulder, shredded pieces of orange cloth still clinging to it. Then a head full of black hair. Finally, Son Goku was visible, dragging himself from the pile of rocks.

He coughed out rock dust, and turned his eyes upward, seeing nothing but darkened, clouded sky. He saw no black eyed demons, no threat at all. They had done it. They had done it!

"We did it." Goku smiled, his eyes half closing. "We beat Morgoth."

Then his eyes went wide as a cold voice came next to him.

"Not quite."

Goku's whole body shook. He slowly turned his head, toward the sound of the voice, desperately hoping that he hadn't just heard what he thought he heard.

There was Morgoth, looking scuffed and burnt, his arms crossed over his chest and one leg slightly elevated on a rock. He was staring down at Goku, and for the first time since he had come out of hell, Goku saw Morgoth not spiteful, not laughing hatefully, not even mildly annoyed. He was very, very pissed.

His mouth curled into a snarl, exposing his sharp teeth, Morgoth uncrossed his arms.

"I told you the game was over, Goku, but you just keep on trying. Now I'm going to have to put you down permanently." 

One hand reached out, palm flat toward Goku, long claws splayed out. Ki began to gather in the hand. But Goku didn't shut his eyes, he looked bravely into the face of death.

Waiting for the end, Morgoth smiled.


	23. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten:

Goku stared as bravely as possible into oncoming death, knowing that he had failed; the earth was doomed. It was something of a new experience. Always before he had been able to defeat whatever was threatening him or his friends, or his home. Now it was over.

And it wasn't just the earth that was in danger, not at all. One this planet was gone, there was no reason for Morgoth to stop. He would move on to another, and another, until in the span of perhaps centuries, all life was wiped out.

As Goku looked into the blast that was about to destroy him, he knew tat somehow he had to stop it from happening. But how?

Then, suddenly, he sensed it.

Gohan.

Morgoth apparently felt it too, because the blast that had been gathering in his palm fizzled out, and he looked to the right, toward the gateway to hell, the pillar of silver light that had been there the whole time, not changing even when Morgoth had covered the entire planet in a giant ki blast.

"Another?" the demon mused. "Strange. I didn't know there were any more warriors on this planet. I wonder where he came from?" Morgoth seemed curious, but not really worried. Which wasn't that strange, because Gohan's power didn't seem to have changed at all; it was about half of Goku's, maybe less.

__

Please… Goku pleaded with his mind to anyone or anything that could possibly hear. _Gohan, stay away. If you come here now, you'll be killed. Please, don't try to save me._

It wasn't working. Gohan was headed straight for them.

"Well, I guess it's a few more moments of amusement for me." Morgoth sighed, turning to face the direction Gohan was coming from. 

Goku saw an opening with a warriors instinct, and desperately dove, jumping up and throwing a fist toward Morgoth. The demon, however, reached a hand out without turning back and slapped Goku to the ground as effortlessly as if he were a paper doll.

"I thought you said attacking from behind was dishonorable." Morgoth chuckled.

Goku said nothing, just sensed Gohan's ki moving closer and closer, and worried for his son's life. The demi-saiyajin's ki was now a visible white dot on the horizon.

"Well, I can't just wait here all day. I guess I'll have to go meet the boy." Morgoth smiled, and a blaze of purple and black ki surrounded him as he blasted off.

"No!" Goku struggled to his feet, letting his own white aura flare around him; he was now far too tired to go super saiyajin. "I can't let him kill Gohan!"

Goku flew off as quickly as he could after Morgoth.

Gohan's mystic power crackled around him, propelling him forward at speeds that no jet could rival. He felt the secret of the Kaio-ken inside him, an ability in his mind that felt like a chunk of gold; the key to victory. 

__

Just hold on for a little longer, guys. He thought. _I don't know if I can beat this guy, but I'm going to try my best._

Gohan sensed Morgoth, and could tell that he was immensely strong, making the tyrannical Majin Buu look like a puppy. But there was something strange about the demonic ki of his soon to be opponent. It was clouded, hard to gauge. He couldn't tell if he could surpass it. 

Of course he would find out soon enough. Morgoth had sensed him, and was coming closer.

The two actually meeting in the middle was less than exciting. At the speeds they were capable of, it only took milliseconds to cover the distance. As they drew close, both pulled up and stopped, staring at each other.

For a few seconds, they just looked at each other, Gohan's face stony and angry, Morgoth's a smirk.

"You must be Morgoth." Gohan said at last. "You're the one who killed everyone on this planet. For that, I'm going to destroy you."

Morgoth laughed softly. "I can't tell you how many times I've heard _that _today. I hope you'll be more fun than all those others that said the same thing."

Gohan's eyes narrowed. "I don't think it's going to be _fun _at all. Unless you like death."

"Oh, let's just get this over with. And I suggest you start with your full strength. Unless that's all the power you have. If it is, this is going to be quite boring."

Gohan smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile at all. "Don't worry."

It was time to start things off from the top, and use all his power to destroy this thing.

"Double Kaio-ken!!" he screamed, as red energy burst around him, his power increasing quadruple, shooting into the stratosphere.

Goku finally caught up, but stopped abruptly about one hundred yards away when he felt and saw what Gohan was doing.

__

Oh, Kami! He screamed mentally. _He's even stronger than me now!_

Gohan screamed as the power rushed through him, beyond anything he'd ever dreamed, his aura a blinding red flame of ki over twenty feet tall. He couldn't even comprehend the amount of power he felt inside him, threatening to tear him apart but giving him the strength to hold together at the same time.

__

I had no idea this kind of strength was possible. Maybe I can really do this.

The cry of power stopped now, and he gazed at Morgoth with eyes that read death.

"Your time is up."

Then he attacked.

A white hand broke through a barrier of dirt and rubble, followed by a muscular arm. The hand dug into the earth and pulled, until Arda yanked himself out of the ground.

The vampire looked around himself with wide, almost confused eyes and shook the dirt out of his hair. 

"Where are the others?"

"Well, I'm alive." Arda turned his head toward the voice and saw Vegeta, now very battered indeed, pulling himself out of the rubble in much the same way as he had himself. The saiyajin prince's ki was low and erratic, indicating exhaustion. 

"Unfortunately." The voice of Osiris came. He was standing off to one side, dirty but otherwise unharmed. "It took you two long enough to come to."

"Shut up." Vegeta growled, pulling himself to his feet. "I can't help the fact that I've done more fighting than you have."

"Where is everyone else?" Arda asked. "We got blown a long way by the explosions from our attacks."

No one knew, and it didn't really matter. Just then was when Gohan engaged the double Kaio-ken, and the red light of his aura was visible from where the three warriors were standing.

"Is that Kakarott's brat!?" Vegeta asked in disbelief. "How could he possibly have gotten that strong?"

Osiris was almost speechless. "Is that the boy I defeated earlier?"

Vegeta frowned in the vampire's direction. "You mean the boy you brutally murdered? Yes that's him." Then the saiyajin prince smiled. "I suggest you watch yourself, if you meet him again."

"Oh, both of you stop it." Arda said impatiently. "We have to find the others, and make sure they're alright. I think Gohan can handle himself. At least for now."

Seemingly also in the middle of nowhere, over half a mile from where Vegeta and the two vampires stood, one of the few boulders that had not been yet smashed to rubble tipped over onto the ground, breaking apart. Krillin crawled out from the hollow where it had been resting, followed closely by Goten and Trunks.

"Just my luck." The small human mumbled. "To get buried under the only big friggin rock left on the planet. Figures."

"Do you sense that!?" Trunks cut in, oblivious to Krillin's complaining. "Goten, that feels like your brother! Kami, he's powerful!"

The younger demi-saiyajin's brow furrowed slightly. "Are you sure? It does feel like Gohan, but he was…" he trailed off, not wanting to say 'dead', but not willing to let himself hope that Gohan was still alive.

"That's him alright." Krillin said, complaints forgotten. "I would know that ki signature anywhere! But I have no idea how he got so strong so fast."

Neither of the two demi-saiyajin had an answer for that.

After a pause, Trunks finally spoke up.

"Let's go find the others."

Goku was beyond exhaustion, and his thoughts were a little muddled and strange. So when Gohan flew faster than he could track, and apparently also faster than Morgoth could track, and slammed an elbow into the demon's face, the saiyajin at first wasn't even sure of what he was seeing.

Morgoth was sent flying backward, but Gohan didn't wait for him to stop. He blurred out, coming to a stop behind Morgoth apparently with ease, and sent a roundhouse kick to his opponent's back that sent Morgoth straight to the ground, throwing clouds of smoke and dirt into the air.

The demi-saiyajin looked down stonily, red energy still coursing around his body, waiting for Morgoth to come back up.

He didn't. What came instead was a huge ball of purple and black ki, seemingly formed instantly from nothing. It shot up at Gohan with frightening speed, giving him only a second to throw his hands down and block. It pushed against him, threatening to break through, but he poured energy on, and deflected it at an angle, sending it harmlessly up into space.

Before he was able to collect himself, Morgoth blurred in behind him and slammed a hard uppercut into his spine, sending off a bolt of pain to remind Gohan that this wasn't just a walk in the park. The demi-saiyajin spun to counterattack, only to find nothing there.

"Above you!!"

Gohan had no time to register his father's voice before two fists, laced together, slammed down on the top of his skull, shooting agony all the way down to his toes and shooting him down to the rocks below. Morgoth quickly followed.

Pushing the pain back and righting himself, Gohan crashed into the ground on his hands and feet, immediately propelling himself back upward to meet his attacker.

The two swung fists at the same time, their punches meeting each other with clashes of energy that went off into the air in waves. A battle of blows began, each sending off waves of ki through the air and into the ground, tearing apart the landscape even further. Neither of the two could land a blow, but while Gohan was remaining levelheaded, Morgoth was getting more and more angry, and beginning to throw blows wildly. It was only a matter of time before Gohan saw an opening.

Morgoth swung angrily at Gohan's face, but neglected to guard his midsection. Gohan ducked out of the way of the poorly planned blow, and planted a fist as hard as he could into the demon's midsection. Without pausing, he rotated and slammed an elbow into Morgoth's face, sending him flying upward.

Now almost howling in rage, Morgoth cupped his hands behind him almost like a kamehameha, not bothering to stop his ascent, and fired a huge beam of purple down on Gohan.

The demi saiyajin calmly powered up his own attack.

"Ka… me… ha… me… HE!!"

The beam of gold and the beam of purple collided.


	24. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven:

Goku was tired, far more tired than he could ever remember being. Watching the two beams, one from his son and one from an enemy, strive against each other, he felt an almost surreal calm about him. He looked down at his chest, and saw that the wound Vegeta had burned shut was now bleeding again. Only a trickle at the moment, but he guessed that if he had to fight again, or move quickly, it would soon be gushing.

He was far enough away so that the force of the two combating kis didn't hurt him, and all he could hear was the roar of it in his ears. Morgoth and Gohan seemed very close in power, so this could go on for quite a while.

Except…

Something bugged Goku, something about the way things had happened when he had been in the position Gohan was now. It had been very strange, Morgoth's ki suddenly shooting into the stratosphere, out of the range of anything Goku could even detect. But it hadn't felt right. The same thing had happened again when Morgoth had covered the whole planet in one huge area blast. 

Their opponent was strong enough as it was, but it was almost as if he could surge his power for brief moments when he chose, doubling or even trebling it. Or perhaps Morgoth had more as of yet unrevealed strength. Either way, it didn't seem hopeful.

Goku shook his head, clearing it. The ball of ki gathering between the two fighters was now huge, and Goku flew back another hundred yards or so to get away from it. He hated this, hated it more than anything; not being able to help. It was torture, watching his son in the middle of a dangerous battle and simply sitting on the sidelines. But he was tired, so tired that he knew his joining in would only get in Gohan's way.

Suddenly the saiyajin was brought back to reality by a laugh. Morgoth's laugh. 

"Now, young saiyajin!!" Morgoth's voice was somehow audible over the roar of their attacks. "It has been interesting, but I'm going to show you that you've been outclassed from the beginning!!!"

And suddenly the demon's hands changed position, instead of being cupped, one hand was suddenly holding the other's wrist, the second hand holding the energy at bay. It was the same thing he had shot at Goku earlier, some nameless attack probably perfected by this monster before there were spoken languages.

And with no other apparent change, the purple ki pouring from Morgoth's hands suddenly flooded, black lightning spiraling down the beam, which had just gone from normal sized to over ten feet wide. It sliced through Gohan's kamehameha like butter.

Goku saw what was happening. He couldn't let his son die, not this way, not again! Somehow, he reached deep into himself, feeling for any bit of power he had. His hair rose and flared into super saiyajin, his eyes turning aqua and his aura a golden flame.

He dove down, faster than the beam, and landed in front of his son. He knew he could never hope to block the blast, even if he and Gohan worked together. But he might be able to divert it.

"Chou KA ME HA ME HA!!!"

He unleashed all the power he could without dying, hitting Morgoth's attack not head on, but from underneath, using it's own momentum and adding his own. It's direction changed, just enough. It roared over their heads, and Gohan (after seeing what his father had done) added his own power, changing it further. The blast shot upward, into space, and detonated, turning the sky a momentary brilliant white even through the thick black clouds.

The group of Vegeta, Arda, and Osiris had grown to include Piccolo, Krillin, Trunks, Goten, and Uubu, who had found their way to the other three during Gohan's battle. Now they stood beneath the still glowing sky and tried to decide what to do.

Krillin, Uubu, Goten, Trunks, and Vegeta were in favor of going to the battlefield right away. Even if they couldn't help, they reasoned, at least they would be there. Maybe once Gohan had fought Morgoth for long enough to wear him down, they could all pool their energy again.

The other three, however, didn't all share that enthusiasm.

"That thing," Arda pointed in the direction of the battle. "Destroyed everything on this planet. With _one blast._ Do any of you realize how much ki it takes to cover an entire planet in an area blast? The only thing we could do in that battle is to get in Gohan and Goku's way."

"I think I have to agree with that one." Piccolo said. "Much as I hate to admit it, all of us are outclassed in this. If we go to that battlefield, Morgoth will try to use our presence against Goku and Gohan, because he knows that they don't want to endanger us."

"Spare me." Vegeta growled. "None of what you've said can convince me to let two allies fight for their and our lives while I sit by and watch. Do you two have no pride?" Vegeta didn't even bother looking at Osiris. "How can you sit here, using others as your crutch?"

Piccolo's expression remained rigid. "Sometimes, Vegeta, questions of pride have to give way to common sense."

Arda sighed and threw his arms in the air. "I've said what I have to say, if everyone else still wants to go try to help, I'll follow. But I still think it's a bad idea." He sat down on the bare earth, crossing his legs. 

"We can't do it." Piccolo said. "Besides, I have to see Kai-sama, I think there's something…"

"I have to go." Uubu interrupted. "I don't want to, but I have a duty to my sensei. If he falls, I have to take his place in the battle."

Piccolo looked at the boy for a second, not saying anything, as if studying him to see how true his words were. Uubu looked back, unblinking into the other's eyes.

Finally the namek sighed. "Do what you think is right. As for me, I have other business."

Piccolo casually pulled Goku's bo staff from his shoulder, holding it by the sling. "Here, kid." He tossed it to Goten. "See that your dad gets this back, when you have a chance. I have something I have to take care of."

And with no more words of explanation, he took off at top speed toward the silver pillar that was the gateway to hell.

Morgoth looked down at Goku and Gohan with an expression of mixed anger, disbelief, and even a bit of wonder, wonder that they could do such a thing, this team of father and son.

"Oh, that was clever." He said at last. "Wonderfully clever. You have managed to save your pathetic lives yet again. Unfortunately for you, I doubt very much that you will be able to do it again."

Goku was almost passing out now, his ki was so depleted. And as he had predicted, the wound on his chest was now profusely bleeding again. How long would it be before it caused him to bleed out? Would there be enough time?

Gohan stared back at Morgoth, hating the demon now. Before he had felt anger, but now it was blinding, red and black hate pouring through his head. This thing was going to kill his father. This thing was going to kill _everything_, and had already wiped the planet clean of living things. Bubbling rage tainting his judgement, he pushed himself past the line.

"Triple Kaio-KEN!!"

Goten, Trunks, Vegeta, Arda, Uubu, and Osiris, all streaking wordlessly toward the battlefield, their kis all low so as not to be detected before they arrived. Not that it would really make a difference, since they all knew there was no way that Morgoth would leave Gohan, the much more challenging opponent, to go find them. But still, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

"Now remember," Arda glanced around at the rest of the warriors. "No one jump in until I tell you to. The only way we get in the middle of this fight is if Gohan and Goku cannot possibly win."

Trunks glanced at the vampire, looking angry. "Who the hell put you in charge!? I'll jump in when I decide I should." The demi-saiyajin glared defiantly.

"Age and power back me up, kid." Now Arda looked irritated, but not really angry yet. "And your father will back me up, I think."

Trunks laughed. "Oh, that's good. My dad's going to…"

"Shut up, Trunks." Vegeta growled.

Trunks glanced at his father in surprise. "Tou-san…"

"We don't have time for this. The vampire's plan works best, so you don't enter until one of your elders says so." The prince glanced around. "And that goes for the rest of you, as well. I may be weakened, but I can still kill you." Vegeta's words had the desired effect, even though they all knew that he wouldn't actually kill them. At least, they hoped…

"Yes, papa." Trunks said dejectedly, crossing his arms over his chest. Goten flew next to him, and gave his friend a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Trunks. We'll get our chance."

Gohan was stuck in some middle ground, his body fighting to hold together and contain the immense power that he had just poured into it. He could hold it… but just barely. And time would be severely limited. He suspected that now he had less than ten minutes before he had to move back down to a double or even single Kaio-ken, or he would hurt himself more than was worth it.

He was dimly aware that he had been screaming, and he forced his mouth to shut it in, bring it down to a mere growl of pain, but also of power. The energy coursed through his body, his mystic form alone now looking like child's play.

Morgoth was looking down at him with a small smile. "This is… interesting. Yes, I'm beginning to like you more and more, Son Gohan. You just keep pushing and pushing, hoping that somehow if you put yourself through enough pain, you can do the impossible, kill the evil Morgoth. Maybe even make up for all those times you let down your family and friends before. Well, you can't, but we'll have fun while you try."

"SHUT UP!!" Gohan flew into the air, leaving Goku standing on the ground, and dove straight at Morgoth, not really knowing what he was going but only intent on destruction, killing Morgoth, banning this foul thing from the world of the living.

But he found himself face to face with a black ball of energy that had just been thrown at him. Not very powerful, though, as he slapped it out of the way.

Morgoth swung at Gohan as he slapped the ball away, but Gohan was too quick, and blocked the fist that would have torn his head off. He countered, slamming a kick into Morgoth's side and throwing the demon off balance, then swinging a fist right into his face, throwing Morgoth backward.

The demi saiyajin didn't wait for hi to stop, but blurred out and appeared behind him. Morgoth was able to right himself, and spun around as he flew toward Gohan.

Gohan swung his fist, and Morgoth blocked, white tremors or energy flying through the air as the blow connected to the arm. Morgoth smiled, opened his mouth, and past the rows of fangs a huge blast ripped straight into Gohan's face.

Having not even spoken to or listened to the rest of the warriors since the initial explanations of his presence, Osiris had been able to monitor and follow the battle much more thoroughly than anyone else. He had been monitoring the kis of Gohan and Morgoth, at first only privately marveling at the demi-saiyajin's huge increase, but now more and more paying attention to the demon, and with growing suspicion. 

All through the battle, Morgoth's ki had been slowly but very steadily going up, which was normal, except for one thing.

In any normal warrior, once they have powered up partially, it is fairly easy for a skilled fighter to be able to sense if they have any power left that they aren't showing. Well, maybe not _that _easy, but having been alive for two thousand years, Osiris had become very, very good at it.

The trouble was, he sensed nothing like this in Morgoth, even though the demon just kept getting stronger. Which could mean one of two things. One, impossible really, was that his power was unlimited. Or two, he was drawing energy from someone or something. The last was more likely, and since the first had them all dead to rights, that was the one Osiris was going with. 

But that only began another problem. Based on the huge surges of ki Morgoth had displayed thus far, his energy could at least for brief moments far exceed anything that could be accurately gauged, more than all of the z warriors combined, easily. 

The only way for them to beat Morgoth was to either somehow overpower whatever he was drawing power from, which already seemed nearly impossible, or to destroy it. Since the second option wasn't even really an option, the first was the only choice.

Osiris calmly shut his eyes and wondered if death hurt much.

Gohan was pitched backward by the blast, and he was at least temporarily blinded. He felt someone, definitely Morgoth, grab the ragged remains of his gi collar and grip it, holding him in place. The Kaio-ken vanished, his mystic power dwindled to less than half. 

"I thought you would enjoy that." The demon's cold laugh made Gohan's skin crawl. "You were fun, Gohan, but our game is over."

Gohan had no doubt that Morgoth would have gone on gloating for quite a while, but he was interrupted when he heard a familiar and very welcome voice yell…

"Put Kakarott's son DOWN!!"

Even his temporary flash blindness couldn't keep him from seeing a flare of gold as Vegeta's foot tore into Morgoth's head, the demon's claws ripping through Gohan's gi as he was tossed away. The demi-saiyajin felt strong arms catch him, arms slightly smaller than his own.

"Don't worry, big brother." Goten said. "We've got you." He floated down, setting Gohan on the ground next to their father, who seemed to be near dead. Then he flew back upward, stopping next to Trunks. The line of z warriors and two vampire's faced forward, as Morgoth floated slowly toward them. 

"You know," the demon said, very irritated, "the surprise rescues are getting quite repetitive. I'm going to kill you all now."

The power surged, beyond anything they had ever imagined or dreamed. But they stood their ground, the warriors who knew they were hopelessly overpowered, and all threw out their ki to block the massive blast that had blown up from every pore of Morgoth's body, but it wasn't enough, of course it wasn't enough. 

They were driven into the ground, power pounding on them. Each one knew in some corner of their mind, that survival of this would be a miracle.

With the help of Juuhachi-gou and Mr. Popo's flying carpet, Dende had been able to get all of the z fighter's friends out of the great black expanse and onto the green grass of Kaio-shin-Kai. Most of them were sitting around the crystal ball, except for Bura and Pan, who were off just out of clear hearing range playing. This was the scene when Piccolo unexpectedly landed.

"I need to speak to Kaio-sama, right now." The namek said, not waiting for anyone to greet him. 

King Kai walked up. "Well, this is unexpected, Piccolo. And just what are you doing here, if you're not dead?"

"I need to ask you something about this Golden Moon. I think it may be the key to defeating Morgoth."

The god seemed immediately interested. "Come over here, where we can talk in private." He gestured toward the one tree on the planet, where there was no one but the old Kaio-shin, listening to a walkman.

He and Piccolo walked over, and began to quickly talk.

Goku's eyes opened just slightly. He saw nothing at first, but then his vision cleared just a little and he saw clouds, the black clouds that covered the whole sky.

His whole body hurt more than he had ever imagined it could, even though he could feel that nothing more major than his ribs were broken. He was just so tired…

His eyes snapped open; they had begun to droop closed. But sleep, hell, even death must be better than this. He had failed, Gohan had failed, all of the z warriors had failed. He didn't have enough ki left in his body to sense whether anyone else was alive, but by turning his eyes he could see Uubu, battered and with one long gash along his side, trying to help Arda, who was trying to stick his severed arm back on his shoulder.

Looking the other way, there was Vegeta. His hair was still gold, so that meant he was at least partially conscious, even half buried in rock as he was.

They were the only ones he could see.

Looking back at the sky, Goku cursed inwardly. How could this happen? Always before, even in the darkest of their dark hours, there had been some sort of hope. Now there was none. Everyone was either hurt or dead, and he himself had so little energy left that simply moving his head required every ounce he had.

And one thing Goku could sense, the only thing, was Morgoth. He was up there in the sky, simply floating just out of Goku's vision. Maybe he was gloating, or maybe he was just trying to figure out what to do next. But Goku never found out, because it was just then that he noticed an interesting change in the quality of the light. It was almost…

Then in a huge flash, it happened. The silver pillar that was a gateway into hell shot all the way up into the sky, going out into space. Goku could see it now, shining so brightly that it hurt the saiyajin's eyes slightly.

Then it exploded in a flash of light, and Goku had to shut his eyes against the glare that now threatened to blind him.

When he opened his eyes, the silver light had changed. Now it was gold. And in the sky was a huge ball of golden light, with a silver hole in the middle.

The Golden Moon.

Kaio-sama looked curiously at Piccolo. "The plan sounds possible, Piccolo, but it's also risky. If it doesn't work, everyone on earth could end up dead for good."

Piccolo smirked. "Yeah, I realize that. But just tell me, could it work? I only came to ask you because you know more about it than anyone else."

King Kai scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, yes, it could work…"

Piccolo was already gone.

Brute Waves. King Kai had said that the Golden Moon's rays were high in them, but no words could have said what Goku was feeling right now. The golden waves of light were touching something in his mind that had lain dormant for years, decades. Since he was a child…

Without even realizing it, he began to raise his ki, and remarkably it rose. He stood up, and looking around he saw that Vegeta was doing the same. Almost without any physical feeling, Goku saw his tail re-grow instantly, and Vegeta's did the same. That was when it really began…

An orb of ki enveloped Goku, the gland in his tail responding instantly to the moonlight as it always had. He screamed, not able to hold it in as the wild, strange, oozaru-like power flooded him. He could tell without even thinking that this transformation would be different, this would be something more, something _legendary_.

Fur sprouted from his upper body, his gi top vaporizing in the roar of power. His hair began to grow, and his senses heightened with his power, which didn't seem to have an end. He could tell easily that Vegeta was feeling what he was feeling, their minds open to each other for the first time since fusing.

Goku could only say one thing, whispered it to himself as the transformation into a near-beast began to complete.

__

Super Saiyajin Four……


	25. Chapter Twelve

Author's Note: Woohoo! I got 100 reviews! Thanks, everyone! 

Chapter Twelve:

Goku looked down at his own body in wonder, still somewhat jaded. What _was _he? What had he become? Was it permanent? But the power…

His body was covered in red fur, except for the chest which was bare. His gi top had been vaporized, revealing the muscles of his upper body, now bulging out, almost like Ultra super saiyajin. 

His hair was shaggy and wild, black, not as long as SSj3, but still down to the middle of his back. It made his normal hair look almost ordered. His eyes were rimmed in red, though he couldn't see them, and the irises had turned gold. His tail, red like the fur covering him, whipped back and forth behind him.

Only feet to the right, Vegeta was standing, looking at himself in the same way Goku had been. He, too, was a super saiyajin four.

__

Kakarott…what is this? Goku heard the voice in his head, and in this strange new form, mind-speak seemed somehow more natural than any earth language.

__

I think it's the next level, however we achieved it. Super Saiyajin Four.

The power he felt moving through him… it was amazing. Goku wasn't sure, because he had never been able to accurately gauge his own power, but he felt that he must be at lest three times what he had been at SSj3 full power. 

That much ki in one living being… Goku had never heard of it before. Feeling it was astronomical, like being made of pure energy. And it was more… wild. Less tamed than the other forms had become. It was like Oozaru, only far, far more.

He looked up to his enemy.

Morgoth was still floating in the same place, looking down at the two saiyajin curiously. For the first time since Goku had seen him, Goku saw an expression he couldn't place. But then he realized, that for the first time Morgoth was seeing something new. Something that he hadn't seen many times before. Could this be the legendary form of super saiyajin?

Uubu watched his sensei with ever growing astonishment. He had never seen, never felt, never even dreamed of anything like this. There was so much energy in the air with Morgoth and the two saiyajin that he was getting a headache just sensing it.

"Has Goku ever done this before?" 

Uubu slowly turned his head from his sensei and looked at Arda, who seemed to have gotten his arm to heal. He shook his head.

"Goku-sensei has never done anything like this before. Not even close." He glanced back at the battlefield. "I had no idea that this kind of power was possible."

"Neither did I." Arda said quietly.

Morgoth finally seemed to be able to process what he was seeing, and didn't look amused by it in the least.

"Stupid monkeys. Prepare yourself for death." He extended his hand, palm pointed at the saiyajins.

But faster than anyone could see, Goku just wasn't there anymore. He was next to Morgoth, the demon's arm twisted back in his hand.

"Give it up." Goku's voice sounded feral, wild. "You're through."

Morgoth growled and yanked his hand from Goku's grasp, eyes wide with alarm. Vegeta floated up to join his fellow saiyajin, eerily calm.

The demon suddenly seemed to regain his composure. He crossed his arms and regarded the saiyajin with a faked look of contempt.

"So, you have felt the effects of the Golden Moon. I must admit that you've surprised me, but there's no way it will get you anywhere."

He clenched his clawed fists at his sides. "Now you'll see real power."

A scream ripped from Morgoth's throat, and black ki erupted suddenly, surging as it had before, glowing energy slamming into the ground, reducing rubble to dust, then melting them into magma.

Only this time instead of surging up and then coming to rest, it kept growing. The energy's black color was strangely intense, hurting the eyes of anything that looked at it, forming an aura that was over twenty feet tall. Goku and Vegeta watched with the same calm as before.

Finally, it stopped. Purple and black ki lightning snapped and cracked around Morgoth, hitting the melted and half melted rock on the ground, throwing small waves of lava that forced Arda and Uubu to move back. He glared at the two saiyajin, the small points of flame in the center of his eyes swollen to bright infernos.

"Now, we fight."

Goku and Vegeta needed no more encouragement. They attacked.

Morgoth's leg blocked Vegeta's, and his arm blocked Goku's, the impact of the blows throwing off aftershocks that shook the ground. The demon seemed to turn sideways, and spun a kick that connected with both of the heroes, sending them back, but not causing much damage. Then he threw his hand out and roared, sending a huge ball of ki barreling at Vegeta.

The saiyajin prince didn't have time to dodge. He caught it, pressing his ki at it to stop it…. And found that it required almost no effort at all.

"You baka." He laughed at the look of surprise on Morgoth's face. "You used your power too late, and now it's not enough. You should have killed us when you had the chance."

As if on cue, Vegeta threw Morgoth's attack back at him, adding his own ki with it, and Goku shot beside hi9m, also pushing his energy into the blast.

The demon leapt out of the way, and his own energy ball shot bast him on a wave of Goku and Vegeta's ki, detonating far behind him, wind howling over the three warriors.

In that split second, there was an opening, and in the kind of clarity that only the most extreme anger can create, Morgoth saw it. He dove forward at his top speed, and sunk all five of the clawed fingers on one hand into Vegeta's chest, dug in, and ripped out a huge chunk of flesh, missing the heart by mere inches.

The prince cried out in extreme pain as he saw his own chest muscles in Morgoth's hand, but there was nothing he could do about it. The scream, though, was more of a reflex, and the pain was far away. He would feel it later, maybe even die from it, but in this form, this super saiyajin four, he was more like an animal than a man, and an animal will bite it's own foot off to get out of a trap.

Holding his hand protectively over the wound, which was seeping blood like a waterfall and staining the red fur a darker maroon, he stood up straight.

"Final…" his hands out at his sides, like a crucifixion position, power surging through his body.

"Chou Ka… me…" Goku cupped his hands, power immediately gathering, stabbing out in bars of light.

Morgoth, now in desperation, surged his energy even higher than it was, and put one hand in front of him, the other hand steadying his wrist. Ki began to gather there, the same black as his aura that hurt the eyes to see.

"FLASH!!!"

"HA ME HA!!!!"

Vegeta's attack wasn't what it could have been, since the shock from the strange wound sapped a bit of his strength without his noticing, but it was still huge, more power than he could have even dreamed of before. And Goku's kamehameha was huge, of galaxy destroying potential. The two beams met, spiraled around each other, then merged into one, zooming at Morgoth.

The blackened ki surged in the demon's hand, taking on a slightly domed shape as it grew.

"Underworld Hammer!"

The attack flew out, a dome of ki backed by a huge blast behind it. It met Goku and Vegeta's blast in the middle, clashing with a roar, simply the lightning and force that shot off the sides destroying anything that was left of the rock. Now the warriors were floating over a pool of magma.

The attacks had met… but neither moved. It seemed that they were equal, and only had to wait for someone to run out of power. And if Morgoth was drawing his energy from some inexhaustible source, it was obvious who would become tired first.

It was just then that Piccolo came back, though neither of the saiyajin saw him. He landed next to Uubu and Arda, who were now over a mile away, trying to keep out of the line of fire.

"You." He pointed to the vampire. "I need your help now. Uubu, you stay here, and if it looks like you can help in the battle, do it."

Arda didn't argue, just took off with Piccolo so fast that Uubu, as powerful as he was, saw only two blurs.

After a second, the boy began to fly slowly closer to the battlefield.

The namek and the vampire flew up and up, almost out into space. When they had gotten far above the black clouds, Arda finally spoke.

"What are we going to do? I can tell you have some sort of plan."

At first Piccolo said nothing. Then he turned toward Arda. "I think, and Kaio-sama agreed with me, that mrogth is drawing his power from the Golden Moon." Even as he said this, they were almost near it, a huge ball of gold the size of a small planet.

"So if we destroy it…" the vampire's face lit up.

They pulled to a stop, now less than 100 yards from the moon.

"We destroy his energy." Piccolo finished. "Let's do it."

The two warriors surged their ki, and fired into the huge ball of gold.

Uubu was now almost on top of the battle, close enough to feel the heat radiating off of the huge ball of ki. He was trying to decide how he could help when the moon exploded, the whole sky suddenly lighting up in golden light.

"WHAT!!!??" Morgoth roared in disbelief, his power suddenly dwindling to the level he had fought with when he first arrived, Goku and Vegeta's attacks pushing down on him. But if he was still able to block some of it, he might live. 

Uubu knew that was a chance that couldn't be taken.

He flew quickly over so that he was less than ten feet from the demon, his hand above his head, charging the attack that Krillin had invented and Goku had taught him long ago: the Kienzen.

Morgoth looked over at him while trying with both hands to hold back the advancing blast, and his eyes widened in absolute horror, the fire pupils flaring.

"Goodbye, monster." Uubu smiled, and threw the disk.

It was perfectly aimed, hitting Morgoth's arms and slicing both hands cleanly off at the wrist. And even as the brown muck flowed out of his arms to heal them, Goku and Vegeta's blast (now with no resistance) roared over him, Morgoth's scream of rage lost amidst the sound of ki incinerating flesh, destroying the demonic creature. 

Uubu took off as fast as he could fly, and a second later when the blast exploded, he was a mile away.

Goku looked at the huge trench in the earth that their attacks had carved, a few football fields wide at least, and longer than he could see. Probably stretching to the ocean, he thought.

"Kakarott…" Vegeta said, his voice slow with disbelief and blood loss. "We won."

The prince's eyes closed, and Goku only just caught him by the wrist before he passed out and fell into the pool of still bubbling magma. But he wasn't even sure if he could hold himself up, not after expending so much energy.

Almost as if he had wished for it, a strong green arm grabbed him around the chest, and though he couldn't see the namek, he did see Arda's marble white face near his own, asking him something that he couldn't quite hear…

"thanks for catching me, Piccolo." He managed to croak out. Then he too went unconscious.


	26. Epilogue

Epilogue:

The trip to Namek had been uneventful. Arda had to use the instant transmission, since Goku had passed out and turned back to his base form, and had been nearly dead from ki loss. Everyone who had died was back, but only the z warriors and their friends had retained their memories. The people of earth, as Goku so often said, didn't deserve to remember the horrible things that had happened to them.

Now, the entire group were gathered on the front lawn of capsule corporation. It was two days later, and Arda had just said that he was leaving.

"Are you sure?" Bulma asked kindly. "You helped us defeat Morgoth; you can stay at capsule corp. as long as you want to."

The vampire smiled warmly. In the morning sunlight of a summer day, he looked almost human. "I appreciate the offer, and believe me, it's tempting. You guys are all great, and I will definitely be back. But there are other things I have to take care of."

Goku put a hand on his shoulder. "Take care of yourself. Remember, you're welcome back anytime."

Still smiling, Arda put two fingers to his forehead, gave a quick wave, and vanished. 

They wouldn't see him again for over a decade.

The only person who noticed the lone figure on top of capsule corp. was Vegeta, and for reasons only he could understand, he chose not to disturb the intruder.

Osiris gazed down at the small group as they said their brief farewell, a grimace plastered on his face. Centuries ago; well, millennia now, he had thought that he never would have come across someone who he hated as much as he hated Arda. But he had. Son Goku.

The strange mixture of feelings was the same. He respected Goku, probably the only being he respected. But he hated him for it, because his ego somehow told him that if he respected someone, they must be better than him, and that was something he had trouble digesting.

But he hated Goku mostly because he had shown him that power and hatred were not the only things to live for. He had awakened feelings that time had frosted over. Those feelings were not pleasant to feel; they almost demanded a complete revision of his entire outlook.

"Oh, this is maddening." The vampire whispered to himself. "How am I to go on with this, now that I've seen a man like this exists."

In fact, all the z warriors made him feel this way. The boy Uubu, so willing to fight for the honor of his sensei, and Gohan, who had faced him fearlessly even when he knew that he was hopelessly outclassed. Trunks, for fighting because he believed Osiris had killed his friend. And Vegeta, who had many of the same feelings he himself felt about Goku, yet was able to understand and even care for the other saiyajin all the same.

It was indeed maddening. And now, what was he to do with himself? Somehow, going back to that ship full of planet destroying robots would feel like sacrilege, after fighting so hard to help save this planet, even if he had been more than half only fighting to save his own life. How could he go back to that old life of drifting through space, stopping on random planets and killing the inhabitants until they gave him what he wanted.

Going through that would be horrible. He felt like he was in the middle of some strange transition, and to go back to that old life would be to destroy something that he had been working at, perhaps without his knowledge, since he had arrived here.

But staying was out of the question. Even if Goku would allow it, Vegeta and Gohan would not. And he really didn't want to. How could he live among people he had killed? It just wasn't right. He had to get away, find somewhere…

"Somewhere for a long sleep." He muttered to himself.

The Long Sleep was something every vampire did at some point. They would find somewhere to lay quietly, usually a ship floating in space or some deserted planet, and go into an almost comatose state for anything from months to centuries. It was the ancient vampire's way of coping with time. Osiris had had two Long Sleeps, once for a year and a half, and once for two centuries. It was like renewal. He hadn't always been a monster, but he had woken up this way from his last Long Sleep. Perhaps another would cure this strange feeling of being trapped between two states of being.

And he felt so tired. Yes, it was time.

With a flare of sinister power that wasn't ki, he launched himself off the domed roof and directly up, up into space. Before long he could see his ship, a small battleship like the kind Frieza's empire would have used, orbiting the planet. 

He could sense someone inside.

The airlock hissed open, and the vampire Osiris stepped into his ship, looking quickly back and forth with eyes so tired of life that they almost shut on their own, looking for the offending presence.

Arda sat at the control console, his feet propped up as he read out of a large leather-bound book that looked older than either of them. When Osiris stepped in, he glanced up and grinned slightly.

"So, you're back."

For a second, Osiris seriously considered flying at the older vampire, tearing him limb from limb, ripping his head from his body and flinging it into space so that it could never be reattached. But he was too tired for a fight; far too tired to combat someone as skilled and as strong as Arda. And the whole thing just seemed so pointless, such a waste. Why would he do it? What would be the purpose?

"Old friend." Osiris muttered, not knowing what to say, feeling utterly hopeless. "I'm so tired. I need rest."

Arda stood, closing the book and setting it carefully down on the console. He didn't look surprised at being called 'old friend', nor did he seem to be at all alarmed at the other vampire's strange manner. He had seen it enough; they all got that way every few centuries or so.

"Come on." He put his hand on Osiris' back, leading him through a door into another room, a bare room with nothing in it but a chair, and a few strange lines on the floor.

Arda walked over to the wall and pressed in a spot that appeared not to have any difference from the wall around it; but when he touched it, the lines on the floor shifted, and a panel about seven feet by four feet slid away, revealing a hollow in the floor that was lined in red velvet, a pillow of the same at the head.

Osiris crossed the room in one quick motion, laying down in the hollow with something that looked like gratitude. He cast a grateful glance in Arda's direction, and the panel slid closed over him. But just before it shut, he muttered something.

"Do you know why they all hate Son Goku? The evil ones?"

Arda shrugged. "Why?"

A faint smile graced Osiris' face as the metal slid over it. "He is the lamb in the lion."

The panel shut.

The red haired vampire stood for a second, simply gazing at the strange set of lines on the floor with a completely unreadable expression. Then he left the room in a flash, and sat back in his chair by the control panel. 

He picked up his book and began to read.


End file.
